


Kakera o sukero | An Flight!AU Fanfiction

by RavenRoyal480



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Angst, Flight!AU (Ninjago), Fluff and Angst, Foreshadowing fairytales, I use too much tags tho, It gets alot better I promise, Jay is always anxious, M/M, Minor Character Design, Multi, Ninjago Flight!AU, Ninjago OC, Ninjago OC(s), Ninjago Oni, Really it does guys, So many different tags, Zane is sad boi, everyone is really gay, flight!au, like really gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-08
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-07-08 10:14:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 28,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15928319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavenRoyal480/pseuds/RavenRoyal480
Summary: In this version of Ninjago elemental masters are hybrids, half-human and half-birds that came about after the First Spinjutzu Master separated the two races in the creation of Ninjago. Hybrids are hunted by the humans, called 'Groundwalkers' by the hybrids and the two species have fought for years. However one year the groundwalkers were desperate to rid themselves of the hybrids and spent one year going after and attacking the hybrids, killing many in the process which would come to haunt them in the end. Six hybrids were affected by the attacks and found themselves at the forefront of them.----Eight years after the horrific attacks from the named 'Year of the Groundwalkers' by the hybrids, Sensei Wu sets out to find the hybrids that belong to gems he has in his possession. He finds them in four different locations and brings them together, but soon they are forced to start fighting against a mysterious force that starts taking over the groundwalkers. Soon more attacks are caused upon the remaining hybrids and they are forced to relive the events from eight years prior. The six hybrids are forced to get along and put aside their grudges to save not only the hybrids and but the groundwalkers also.





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightlyBird](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightlyBird/gifts).

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> At the beginning of the story there were six hybrids in four locations.
> 
> Three suffered major loss in the Birchwood Forest before finding each other.
> 
> One lost half of his family in a planned attack.
> 
> One nearly lost his pack in a sequence of explosion.
> 
> One is unaware of the future that is coming for him and his kind.

The fire flickered from inside of Zane’s fireplace, the last of the wood that he had collected being burned to keep the hollow warm from the Birchwood Forest’s all-year round winter. Not that he minded that is, after all it’s where he had lived all his life and he liked the cold to an extent that is but still warmth was important to him so he needed to collect more wood for the fireplace. Standing up from where he had been sitting re-reading one of his favorite books, he picked up the burlap bag that was resting next to the side of his nest before slipping on his jacket and flying off into the snow-covered forest. Flakes were gently floating down from the sky collecting on the fur that lined the collar of his jacket as he landed onto a tree branch near the hollow.

Snapping a piece of wood in half he placed the newly broken twig in his bag then quickly snapping another that was near the one he had already broken. Hopping to another branch across from him on the same tree he repeated the process an couple of times before flying to a different tree. Around the seventh tree he landed on and with an relatively full bag he was starting to break off another branch when he jerkily dropped it down the side of the tree in shock as two high-pitched screams echoed through the quiet forest before being briefly followed by yells. Startled by the sudden disruption to the usually calm forest he quickly regained his composure before flying toward the sound of what he guess was struggling. As he jumped and flew from tree to tree the sound grew louder, screams being followed by angry squaws of hybrids and the loud creaking of trees.

Suddenly an large explosion broke through the canopy of trees causing Zane to get blown back by the intentional force of the blow, red and oranges being reflected on the snow covered trees. Zane’s hand wrapped around the branch of a tree catching himself from falling down onto the ground as he heard two short screams of surprise followed by the sound of something slicing through another object. Blinking an couple times he let go of the branch quickly beating his wings as he dropped down to the ground and kept going in the same direction that the screams had come from. The snowy owl saw an upcoming clearing break through the trees, figures coming through the spaces between the tree trunks, so he flew up to a birch tree that lined the edge of the clearing and landed on a branch that was high-enough so that he couldn’t been seen.

Looking down he was shocked and disgusted as his eyes landed upon two bodies bleeding out into the snow and a group of groundwalkers surrounding something in a circle. Knives and a few shotguns (to his horror) were pointed into the center of the circle, cries emanating from the middle as the groundwalkers yelled and sneered at the center. Zane’s eyes flickered down to the bodies that were resting in the snow as rage boiled inside of the hybrid at the display of murder, the same type of display that he had seen long ago that took his fathers away from him. Turning his attention to the group of groundwalkers he glared at them before reaching for something inside of his bag, taking out a whistle and blowing into it. 

The sound of a bear’s roar echoed through small clearing which gained the attention of the groundwalkers and the brief silence of the cries. Some of the groundwalkers scrambled away from the circle in fear as Zane blew the whistle again but most stood their ground breaking the circle in search of the origin of the noise. Gripping the whistle he saw what the groundwalkers had been surrounding, two hatchlings clutched onto each other not much younger then himself as tears were streaming down their faces. Pieces starting clicking together in his mind of what had happened, an attack on what was a family of hybrids to claim all four of their lives, and Zane would be damned if he let those awful people put one finger on the hatchlings. 

Anger welled inside of the young hybrid as snow started to fall heavily from the sky, instenfing the longer he saw the blood littering the ground. Sharp wind sliced through the trees adding to the growing snowfall, as the groundwalkers started to yell at each other about the storm and a few started to leave, while others protested pointing to the once again crying hatchlings. Zane’s eyes narrowed at those that were protesting and icicles started to whirl around their bodies as he tried to freeze the groundwalkers but to no avail. The other members of the group grabbed their freezing members and one by one left the clearing. A few spit on the ground near the hatchlings who were huddled against each other for warmth but they eventually left them alone. The snow started to die down as they left the area and got further and further away and soon stopping all together, Zane slouched against the trunk of the tree as his energy was drained from the usage of his power. 

Except he missed the tree trunk and fell down the side of the tree, releasing a surprised chirp as he tried to flap his wings and gain balance but all it did was merely soften his landing as he fell into the snow. Groaning a bit in pain from the landing he pushed himself off of the ground before meeting the eyes of the hatchlings. The two stared back at the snowy owl as he looked around briefly for his bag which had fallen off his shoulder in the initial drop but eventually gave up. Glancing to his right he frowned at the seemingly peaceful bodies, snow laying gently on the folds of their clothing as one of the hatchlings tried to chirp softly.

Zane’s attention quickly shifted to the two hatchlings as he responded with his own chirp which seemed to start to calm down the one who had called from him. Walked toward the pair he briefly took in their appearance. The one who had chirped to him was a hybrid around what looked like the age of eleven, with brown hair styled into spikes with scar over his left eye, his sister (he presumed that is) looked slightly younger probably around ten or nine with black hair pulled into ponytail. Large macaw wings were on the back of the two, the boy’s red, yellow, and blue while the girl’s were various shades of blue. As Zane came closer the cries of the two calmed down as he kneeled in front of the two, and started to speak, “My name is Zane, can you tell me your names?”

The two were silent toward the question but the boy slowly tried to grab onto Zane’s arm trying to pull the snowy owl toward the him but his sister squaked in fear so he released the snowy owl. Zane frowned in worry over the two, especially in this situation since they couldn’t stay in the cold they would freeze to death, but he doesn’t know how to take care of hatchlings, he can barely take of himself. Sighing he looked to the two, “I know you’re scared, you’re distressed, I know because I’ve been there too. But I want to help you, really I do, and I can’t do that if you don’t let me.” The two hatchlings clutched onto each other taking in the owl’s words seeming to have an silent conversation with each other.

Standing up he turned away from the hatchlings toward the bodies. It all felt too familiar to him, and even though it happened years ago he still didn’t forget what had happened, it changed his life and he hated that the two hatchlings had to go through the same thing he did. Zane raised his hand feeling the snow around him start to shift, he moved the snowflakes over the bodies circling over them before starting to cover them. He couldn’t give his dads the proper burial that they deserved but these people, these people that he didn’t even know, didn’t deserve to die by the groundwalkers and let to rot in the snow. Zane crafted two ice roses and walked over to the now graves placing each rose on top of the bodies. He heard the light thumps of footsteps against the snow from behind him and a hand entered his own. 

Zane glanced down to see the two hybrids beside him, each were staring at the graves. “Thank you.” The boy said softly turning to look at Zane, who stared back confused.

“For saving us and for this,” He said softly gesturing to the graves seemingly oddly calm considering what had just happened, to which the snowy owl simply nodded in return. “It’s the least I can do,” Zane whispered, as the girl walked away from the two getting the boy to yell “Nya what are you-” before seeing her pick up something from the snow, the burlap bag Zane had lost.

The girl, or Nya, walked back over giving the bag to Zane silently, who accepted it gratefully placing it back over his shoulder stepping back as the boy grabbed Nya’s hand and the two kneeled in front of Zane’s makeshift graves. Zane looked away, feeling like he should give the two time to mourn. Snow fell gently from the sky as thoughts ran through all three of the hybrids’ mind, silence drifting over them all as the forest returned to a seemingly peaceful state. Tears started to once again drip down each of their faces but for different reasons, for the siblings it was the loss of their parents, of the only pack they had ever know but for Zane it was for his own lost childhood and for this family that were brutually ripped apart and he could do nothing to fix it.

____

Cole ran around his parents as they chattered to themselves, a woven picnic basket swinging from his mother’s arm as she laughed at something that his dad had said to her. An red and white butterfly flew by Cole’s face which caught the hatchling’s attention who ran after the small bug. His mother called after the hatchling seeing Cole run after the bug, Cole looked back and forth between his mom and the butterfly before ultimately choosing his mother instead. Flapping his wings he bounced across grass covered ground over to his parents. 

“I think this is good place Quartz,” His dad said to his mom, laying down an red and white checkered blanket which Cole then jumped onto. Cole watched as his parents set up the picnic they had brought while the rest of his pack started to set up around them since it was the leader of the pack who decided to get everyone in the pack to take a day off and have an picnic. The rest of the pack loved the idea and so did Cole who loved to spend time with his parents and see the rest of his pack enjoying themselves. Someone then started talking to him which shook Cole out of his thoughts, turning to the voice and see it was his mother who was trying to get his attention.

“Yeah mom?” He responded as his mom motioned for him to come to her, which Cole did plopping into his mom’s lap as she laughed. “Sukoshi ochitsuite kudasai.” His mom said hugging the hatchling to her chest as Cole squirmed which made both of his parents laughed at.

While his dad unpacked their packed lunch Cole chatted with his mom about little useless subjects until Cole spoke up about powers. His mom paused as Cole asked about her powers worked and if he was ever going to get his own powers. Quartz paused at the question as she leaned back on her hands as Cole blinked up at her, she looked down at the gold anklet that was wrapped around her leg which was dotted with red gems. Shrugging she held up her palm in front of Cole watching as the small hatchling looked on as sunset colored plumeria flower bloomed in Quartz’s palm.

“You’ll get your powers eventually iwa,” Quartz spoke picking the flower from her palm, brushing Cole’s hair behind his ear and placing the flower there. Cole giggled since the petals of the flower tickled the sides of his face, letting his mom style his hair watching as his dad trying to figure what snack his wife had packed for each of them. 

Someone screamed. Everyone’s heads whipped around to find the source of the scream which came from an hybrid that was watching in horror as their partner was caught by a net and pulled away by a group of approaching groundwalkers. Quartz grabbed Cole from the ground immediately as she gave the young boy to Lou as other hybrids stood up and went to go fight the groundwalkers while others tried to get the hatchlings in the pack away. Lou tried to follow his wife but she pushed the two away.

“Quartz please, please don’t do this,” Lou begged but Quartz just smiled at the two sadly, brushing Cole’s hair away from his forehead placing a soft kiss on his forehead. “I love you,” She whispered placing a kiss onto her husband’s lips before pushing them away. 

“Quartz please-!” Lou said as she ran toward the fight, the earth starting to break apart. “Go Lou! Get Cole out of here now!” Lou grasped tighter onto Cole’s body as they both watched as she went to pick up an hybrid from the ground before Lou turned away, jumping off the ground and flying off into the sky.

Cole panicked at the change of scenery from the ground to the sky watching as his mom got into a fist-fight with a groundwalker. Lou hugged the boy to his chest as the hatchling screamed for his mom trying to get out of his dad’s arms to get back to his mom. Lou hovered in the air getting Cole to face him as he tried to calm the panicked hatchling, other hybrids passing and stopping next to the pair. Suddenly a group of screams came from the ground which stopped Lou, Cole, and the other hybrids in the air to startle and turn around to where they had just came from.

Quiet came over the group of flying hybrids as they saw blood spill onto the ground with only groundwalkers left standing on the ground. They watched in pure silence as the groundwalkers left the area laughing and congratulating each other on the mass kill as they left the area. What was left of the pack flew down to the ground as soon as the groundwalkers left the area scrambling to the bodies. Others started to identify friends, mates, and family, Lou and Cole landed on the ground but Lou didn’t let the small hatchling out of his arms but turned away from the carnage.

Cole looked over his dad’s shoulder and passed everyone only to see his mom laying on the ground, a pool of red surrounding her. Cole yelled for his mom, fighting against his dad to let him go which Lou did by accident wehn Cole elbowed him in the stomach, dropping the hatchling onto the ground as the hybrid ran toward his mom. Lou chased after the small hatchling watching in sorrow as Cole collapsed next to his mom’s body before desperately trying shake the hybrid to wake her up. Kneeling down next to his son he grabbed his wife’s hand starting to cry while Cole desperately try to get a response from his mom.

____

Edna walked a little behind her husband and their son smiling to herself, as they chatted about the scrap metal that they had collected while the pack had travelled for the day across the Sea of Sand looking for materials. The groundwalkers that lived around this area were particularly careless about their useless and unneeded materials which the hybrids, not just Edna’s pack but other hybrids around the general area found very useful and often collected it for their camps. Other hybrids flittered by the three occasionally saying hi to Jay or Ed and Edna, while Jay joked around with the other hatchling of the pack presenting a shiny piece of metal from his pocket that he had found hidden in the sand. Ed trailed a few footsteps behind to meet with Edna and then start talking about the ideas that Jay had come up with, some were silly but others actually had some good math to them.

Jay bounced up and down next to his only pack friend, a hummingbird named Griffin. “Check this out Griff!” Jay exclaimed holding a sharp piece of metal, it shined in the bright sunlight which Griffen buzzed in excitement over zipping over to examine the metal in Jay’s hand. “That’s so awesome Jay! It looks so pretty!”

Jay grinned, the gap in his teeth obvious from the smile. Griffin then let Jay look at the purple and red rocks he had found hiding under one of the few bushes that littered the ground occasionally, and the blue jay marvelled at the shiny colors of the rocks. The ground shook briefly almost knocking Jay off balance, Griffin quickly wrapping his arms around Jay’s shoulders and pushing the hatchling back onto his feet. Jay’s and Griffin’s parents looked behind them seeing the rest of their pack glancing confusedly at each other and a few others just shrugging.

The ground shook again, but much more violently this time getting Jay to fall onto his back and drop the piece of metal. Griffin watched as his friend fell down into the sand, quickly putting the rocks in his pocket as he grabbed each of Jay’s hands and pulling him up. Jay’s wings flapped bringing him to the same height as Griffin which was only about two feet off the ground, as a large explosion went off in the distance. Fire enveloped the sky only a few hundred feet from the pack, the ones closest to the blast went flying backwards as other hybrids hid behind their wings from the debris.

Jay and Griffin dropped to the ground hiding each other in their wings as the debris hit the feathers and bones on their wings, and since Jay’s were bigger then Griffin’s he hid most of the two. Slowly the debris trickled down to a stop and the two hatchlings looked up from their huddle together. They saw small pairs of hybrids dotting the ground, also hiding behind their wings each glancing over their wings toward the blast radius. The hybrids that were closest to the blast radius started to slowly push themselves up from the sand, only a few of them had minor burns on their skin as other hybrids of the pack started to rush to their side. 

Edna stood up from her huddled with Ed and ran over to her son, picking up the little boy as Ed lifting Griffin into his arms after seeing that his parents had rushed over to assist some of the injured hybrids. The rest of the pack went to where Ed and Edna were holding the only two hatchlings of the pack, soon eventually trickling to form a somewhat large circle with the hatchlings and the injured gathered in the middle. The pack got into defensive stance as if another attack was going to take place, but after awhile nothing happened and the same spot just kept smoking. Edna’s arms tightened around his son as the little blue jay squirmed at the squeeze while Griffin just glanced around confused at the pack’s defensive stand.

“Stand down right now,” The Sensei yelled from the middle pack while he was getting squished. Jay stopped squirming at the Sensei’s tone of words, kinda scared since he didn’t particularly like their Sensei to begin with. It was half-cyborg, half-hybrid named Ronin and in Jay’s opinion kinda mean. The hybrids glanced at each other warily but listened to the short angry bird and caught out of the defensive stance, eyes flicking to each other silent conversations flying between them. Ed put Griffin down and the boy zipped back into the sky and over to his parents was accepted the small boy into their arms.

Ed put his hand onto Edna’s shoulder who was reluctantly putting Jay down back onto the sandy ground. Almost immediately after Jay’s feet touched the ground, the pack started asking questions about what happened, why was there an explosion and who set it. Edna rolled her eyes before following two other hybrids to inspect the shrapnel that what was probably bomb had left in its aftermath to identify what bomb it was or whose bomb it was. “It looks like a groundwalker bomb!”

The hybrids chatter grew louder with both panic and anger at the action, some claimed it to be a hate attack on their kind while others suggested it was warning for walking too far into the groundwalkers’ territories. Jay hugged his dad’s leg in curiosity watching as Ronin grew more and more annoyed with his pack as Edna rejoined the two. Ronin slammed his metallic arm and wing together making a loud clanging sound which was used to shut up the pack almost immediately, Jay and Griffin making small whines in discomfort at the noise. “You all need to stop and chill the fuck out, what we should take from this is that we all walked from this relatively unscathed and unharmed. So stop the damn conspiracy theories and let’s just go home already.”

Jay watched as barn owls to parakeets shifted uncomfortably at the demand from their sensei but complied, getting their dropped backs of materials and starting back toward the camp, whispering quietly. An hand softly tapped Jay on the shoulder to which he turned around to seeing Griffin holding his dropped piece of metal, “I think you dropped this Jay.” Jay replied with a small soft ‘thank you’ taking the metal piece from Griffin’s hand as the hummingbird zipped over to his parents. Edna called out for her son which Jay turned around to and flew over as the small family picking up the rear of the pack with the crater smoking behind them.

____

Wu watched out the window as the sun started to sink below the horizon tinting the sky different shades of red, oranges, yellows, and pinks with clouds dotting the sky. Lloyd snoozed soundly in his crib from beside the old phoenix while wrapping his arms around a green stuffed dragon toy, one of the only things left from his mom as his parakeet wings extended in and out with his breaths. Wu smiled under his beard at the small two year old hatchling chirping in his sleep, before quickly glancing at his hands and the peridot gem hidden in his palm. The gem was gorgeous but it was strange. Gems didn’t appear until the hatchlings were much older, so why was the gem appearing so suddenly?

The door opened softly from behind him quickly placing the peridot into the folds of his kimono as his brother entered the room confused at seeing his brother standing there. “Wu why are you with Lloyd?” 

“I’m sorry brother I was merely thinking, and it is very calm with Lloyd to watch the sunset.” Garmadon shrugged softly seeming to agree with Wu walking over to his son and looking down at the parakeet, only love in the raven’s eyes. Wu turned away from the sight watching as the sun disappeared down beyond the horizon. Turning to his brother again Wu opened his mouth, briefly wondering if this was the right thing to do but there’s something more going on.

“I’m going away for a little bit, for a meditation break.” Garmadon looked up from Lloyd confusion flashing in his purple eyes as if asking why the sudden trip but it went away quickly. Sighing Garmadon smiled at his younger brother nodding in understanding seeing Wu’s stance relax. Wu walked by his brother leaving the room quickly, the green gem still hiding his sleeves going to the front door and slipping out before jumping and flying into the sky, his wings glowing a light fire-golden color through the night sky.

….

Three months had passed since Wu had left that one night, and Garmadon had assumed that Wu would have only been gone for a week but days kept passing, and two weeks passed, one month, two month, and finally three months. The rest of the pack had then started to talk about the abandonment of Wu from the pack to Garmadon's annoyance, but he was starting to lose hope for his brother. But something inside him told him not to give up on his brother, Wu always had a reason into what he did so he knew that Wu must have a reason for leaving the pack. Lloyd snorted from his father’s arms, strands of his hair tickling his nose from the breeze.

Garmadon chuckled at his son while staring over the monastery roof’s toward the sky, like he had did every day for the past two and half months as if searching for his brother. Maybe by luck he’d see Wu’s golden wings from over the sky and land down onto the training ground. Lloyd’s eyes opened to look back at his dad before glancing around at the training ground. Turning around the two hybrids entered the monastery and as the door locked and lights turned off, a golden feather landed gently on the rock covered ground.


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sensei Wu starts the search for the first two hybrids to join the pack. He finds them in an stoic red-tailed hawk and an excited blue jay.

The sun rose over the nearly abandoned house in the forest, as the rays traveled over to the nearby house as the groundwalkers starting to rise from their beds to start the day’s work while others kept sleeping soundly through the sun’s bright rays when they reached the windows. What they didn’t know were the disdainful eyes peering down from one of the cliff caves that surrounded the outside of the village, the being started to move from within in the shadows going to the edge before taking a running leap off it and plummeting toward the bottom. A pair of large brown and red wings flew out, giving on powerful flap and lifting the being up into the sky. Flying back up the side of the cliff the hybrid disappeared into the clouds that were starting to form, moisture growing on his skin as a sign of definite starting of rain, looking through the clouds over the village the hybrid waiting until they were over the forest before pulling their wings to their back and dropping from the sky. 

Before hitting the canopy of the forest the hybrid pulled his wings back out giving a gentle flap as they lowered themselves down toward the ground letting their feet plop solidly on the ground. Putting their hand into the hollow of a tree they pulled out a black cotton cloak and threw it around their shoulders before trekking down an almost hidden dirt path. Coming upon an brick building the hybrid turned the corner looking up at where the door which was on the roof of the house, put there to keep groundwalkers out and only hybrids allowed inside. Surprise the hybrid looked up to see a phoenix sitting on one of the roof’s edges playing a wooden flute. 

The phoenix glanced down at the black-cloaked figure, putting the flute down a small smile on his lips, the edges of his beard turning upward. “You must be Cole.” 

Cole blinked at the hybrid glancing around to see if there was anyone else around, the phoenix calmly stared back at the slightly freaking out red-tailed hawk. Cole glared at the old hybrid giving one powerful push with his wings launching off the ground and landing on the roof’s edge. Moving the cloak away from his pants he pulled out the key that was hiding in his back pocket putting it into the lock on the door. Turning the key, the lock let out a little ‘click’ and unlocked, Cole repocketing the key and took the lock off. 

The old phoenix watched as Cole carefully, almost too carefully opened the door to his house and setting it gently on its side before he awkwardly glanced back up at the old hybrid. “Do you want to come in, uh-”

“Sensei Wu and I would love to,” Wu’s beard curled up again as Cole rubbed his neck jumping into the house with Wu right behind. Wu drifted to the bottom or ground floor since the house was one big room with various ledges and one large one with Cole’s nest on it, Cole was clinging to the top of the room on a perch pulling the door back over carefully linking the lock on the inside loop but didn’t click the lock closed. Cole’s hair was hanging upside down from his position as the red-tailed hawk let go of the perch and grabbed quickly onto the rope hanging down from the middle of the room and sliding down to meet Sensei at the bottom. Throwing the cloak onto one of the few chairs Cole turned toward Sensei who was looking around the house, the flute somehow disappeared from sight. 

“So why are you here, Sensei was it?” Cole shoved his hands into the side pockets of his sweatpants as Wu sat on a different chair from the one that he had thrown his cloak on. 

“I noticed you were closing that door very carefully young man, mind telling me why?” Wu watched as Cole’s posture went stiff and he coughed into the side of his arm, clearly uncomfortable at the question that was asked. 

“I, um...It’s uh…” Cole panicked on what to say, eyes glancing back between Wu and the various perches surrounding the home. Sensei Wu leaned back against his chair as the young hybrid scratched the back of his neck. “It’s just-”

“Your powers?” Sensei supplied as Cole nodded softly, shoulders starting to sag a little. The old hybrid chuckled a bit at the other hybrid’s sullen attitude toward his power but calmed down motioning for the other hybrid to come closer toward him. Cole blinked but complied and slumped into the chair next to Sensei as he pulled a wrapped object from his robe. 

“I believe I have something that can help with that Cole.” The phoenix gestured for the hybrid to take the package which Cole did slowly. Weighing the object in his palm Cole glanced back up at the Sensei who motioned toward it. With some apprehension the red-tailed hawk picked up one end of fabric and pulled it back, his breath halted in his chest at the sight of a orange gemstone resting on the black cotton fabric in his palm. 

It looked almost exactly like his mom’s gem but he couldn’t dwell on the fact for too long before the jasper started glowing brightly, rising up from the fabric and shattered in mid-air. Cole’s gaze was fixed directly onto the gem pieces in the air as the pieces formed a shiny golden anklet before floating down to wrap around his ankle. The hybrid almost immediately buckled over from pain as the gem’s controlling power shot through his body and pulled on tight to his element. Cole barely felt Sensei put a hand on his left arm as the gem pulled the power of earth back and clamped over it to restrained it and started to allow Cole some relief from the constant feel of it, and almost immediately after it started the gem’s power froze and stopped moving, the elemental power now stuck on the back burner and for once in a long time, Cole wasn’t afraid of breaking something accidently. 

Taking a deep breath the red-tailed hawk slumped over, resting his elbows on his knees. Sensei let Cole pause and catch his breath before guiding the young hybrid onto the back of the chair, “Do you feel a bit better now?” 

Cole glanced over at the phoenix giving him a small smile and a nod before lifting his leg and looked at the golden anklet wrapped around it. It looked exactly like his mom and he guessed it made since he did have his mom’s power after all, and yet this felt fitting after all this time. Now that he thought about it, he also couldn’t even remember the last time he talked to his dad. The jasper shards glowed dully before falling dormant as he placed his leg back on the ground. 

“I have one more question before I go however.” Cole’s attention turned back to the Sensei who had moved from his chair to looking around his house. “Do you wish to come with me and start a new pack?” The hybrid stopped briefly, blinking in shock at the Sensei who only raised an eyebrow in return. 

He thought about, the house he lived was small, with barely any of his belongings and he lived alone and constantly wary of running into a groundwalker. Cole looked back his anklet for it represented everything he tried to leave behind, but everything will catch up with you in the end. Being around other hybrids felt nice after avoiding them for awhile, Sensei felt safe even if he’d only known him for a short bit. Narrowing his eyes met Sensei’s own and a small smile growing into a smirk the red-tailed hawk knew his answer. “Sure why the hell not Sensei?” 

____

“So there’s another hybrid we have to hunt down?” Sensei Wu looked back at his student who was flying behind him, the red-tailed hawk had gotten more used to the hybrid life over the past few months and was starting to shake off the wariness he had toward the species. Cole was getting better at controlling his power, able to call on it when he needed it but could pull back if it was getting out of control. Wu nodded pulling back to be even with the younger hybrid and pulling out the blue gemstone which was glowing dully.

“Is that how you found me?” Cole asked as the gemstone was pocketed once again which Wu replied a yes to. Sensei was able to find the hybrids due to their gems glowing the closer that they got to them. While Cole was the first to be found, there were four other stones in the hollow that he lived in. The blue apatite they were using now, a shockingly red ruby, a pale green jade, and an bright yellow Citrine. 

They grew on the pack gem flower that was rooted in the middle of Sensei’s hollow, the hollow was surrounded on each side by three others, one for each of the hybrids destined to join the pack. Cole chirped pulling Sensei out of his thoughts as he saw that they were flying over a desert landscape, the apatite starting to warm up from the pocket in his robe. Wu nodded and the two dropped down out of the sky before pulling up so they didn’t hit the ground. Gliding over the sand dunes the two kept an eye out for any signs of hybrids living there. 

Cole pulled ahead of Sensei going farther up in the sky looking over the ground, a slight buzzing started in his right eye. Shaking his head to rid himself of the sound, the buzzing continued; turning his head and pausing in the sky. From the corner of his left eye he saw a blob zipping over the sand dunes, pausing for a few seconds then moving on. Cole called out to his pack leader and went down to follow the blob which grew into a hummingbird hybrid the closer he got.

The hummingbird was digging in the side of one of the dunes when Cole caught up to the hybrid. Landing near the other, the hummingbird turned around and was shocked to see the large hawk staring back at him, his wings stopped momentarily dropping the hybrid to floor as Cole jumped forward grabbing the hybrid out of the air. The hummingbird blushed in embarrassment letting out a surprised tweet and turned away from making eye contact with the concerned red-tailed hawk. “Are you alright?”

The speedy hybrid nodded quickly and let Cole put him on his feet moving away from the other as Wu came out behind the two. “What’s your name?” Wu asked the young hummingbird as the other started to beat his wings again rising a few inches off the ground. The hummingbird turned to the Sensei shocked at the sight of the other hybrid glancing between him and Cole. 

“I...I’m Griffin, who are you guys?” Cole placed his hands on his hips as his sensei introduced the both of them to Griffin who was noticeably starting to relax. While listening to the two talk about, something or whatever, he focused on studying the other. He wore a white skin tight outfit with sleeves that went to his elbows cut off and ended in fingerless gloves, the outfit went down to his knees before ending ankle high boots. 

From what he remember of Sensei’s occasional lessons about hybrid classes he recognized the outfit as teacher’s outfit. Since Sensei classified him as apart of the fighter class he wore a dark grey crop top and shorts with boots that came to about his thighs and fingerless gloves. His anklet was wrapped around his right leg while Griffin wore a blood red garnet in a circular headband. “Cole...Cole!”

Jerking his head toward the voice that called his name he saw the blue apatite glowing in Griffin’s palm and Sensei waiting for the other to realize that they were starting to move. “Oh sorry,” Wu smiled but motioned for the other to follow them as Griffin sped off followed by Sensei and Cole. Griffin zipped around in a zig-zag pattern to Cole’s confusion but he didn’t question it too much.

After about 20 minutes a large junkyard came into view, rising up from the sand dunes. Griffin landed or hovered at the entrance of the junkyard waiting for the two other hybrids to catch up to him. With the apatite still in his hand Griffin flittered into junkyard with Cole and Wu walked behind them. As they walked toward what Cole guessed was the back of the junkyard, other hybrids looked onward at the two newcomers walking through the junkyard. 

After walking for a few minutes they came upon one of the last few trash piles which Cole noticed that hybrids were living in carved out parts of the trash piles. Griffin stopped in front of one of them and yelled out, “Jay! I’ve got something to give to you!” 

Cole’s breath hitched slightly as short adorable blue jay appeared out of the cave entrance in the mound. The hybrid was shorter then he was wearing the same outfit as Griffin but dyed a sky blue instead, he had a freckles over the bridge of his nose with bright blue eyes. Cole coughed into his elbow as the other jumped down to the ground, he hoped that all other hybrids weren’t this cute. Jay, he was guessing, came up to Griffin being presented with the blue apatite.

Jay’s face lit up at the sight of the gem in Griffin’s hand which he immediately grabbed (albeit gently) and watched as almost the same thing that happened to Cole occurred to Jay. Jay’s apatite glowed as it rose into the sky and shattered into pieces, the pieces came together a form into a silver arm band which wrapped around his upper left arm. And again, like Cole, Jay double over in paint clutching his arm as Griffin made sure that he didn’t fell over, when Jay did the red-tailed hawk felt his arm go to catch the other but stopped since Jay didn’t even know him! Jay recovered more quickly then Cole did, starting to stand back up again while staring at arm bracelet.

Griffin told Jay something who looked around to stare at Sensei Wu and Cole, Jay’s gaze lingered over Cole before turning back to Griffin say something in response. Cole glanced over at Sensei who was calmly watching the interaction as Jay smiled and nodded something. Jay gave Griffin a hug before the hummingbird flittered away and back into the desert. The blue jay bounced over to Cole and Sensei with a big smile on his face putting his hands behind his back. “So you’re the ones that had my gem, that means I’m apart of your pack right?”

Sensei nodded with Jay letting out an excited chirp in response, he told the two he was going to tell his parents then grab some of his stuff head out with them. As Jay flew toward the biggest junkpile in the yard Sensei turned toward his student holding back a laugh at the young hybrid staring at the blue jay with a look of pure adoration.


	3. Chapter Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During an spar Cole and Jay find out that they’re not the only ones for the pack with Sensei revealing two more gems and hybrids locate. Traveling to the frozen Birch Forest the three are ambused for three mysterious hybrids, especially Cole who gets up close and personal with one of them. The two gems do indeed respond, but why does the third one already have their gem, isn’t Sensei supposed to have all of the gems as pack leader? Who are these mysterious hybrids and what does Sensei have in store the slowly growing pack?

Dust floated up into the sky in a thick cloud that was quickly followed by a loud chirp as ruffling came from the center of the cloud of dust as a blue blur raced out of the particles and kicked one of their legs into the chest of another larger hybrid. Jay smiled to himself as Cole tumbled to the ground, a large thump following up his fall. Cole chuckled wiping blood from his nose as Jay fluttered above him, eyes searching his opponent’s body for any movement. Unwrapping his wings from under his back Cole pushed himself off the ground and shot up at the blue jay; his wing-span almost twice Jay’s which the blue jay could very clearly see, fear briefly crossing his face as he quickly changed direction and shot off toward the sky.

“C’mere Jay!” Cole shouted toward the smaller hybrid only getting flipped off in response. Tucking his wings to his back Jay fell to the ground in a backflip, surprising the red-tailed hawk who watched as his opponent dart back toward the ground. Smirking he hovered in mid-air jerking his hand up, Jay watching in surprise as a large stalagmite shot up from the ground toward him. Pushing his arms in front with his wings spreading out to slow his fall, lightning came out of his palms hitting the stalagmite and shattering it into tiny pieces before Jay hit the ground. 

Short spurts of pain shot up Jay’s legs when he hit the ground, tucking his arms behind his head and went into a roll on the ground. Smiling to himself Jay stood up from where he had rolled on the ground, the hybrid heard a noise from behind him and looked up with enough time to see (and feel) the red-tailed hawk knock him to the ground. Letting out a grunt the two rolled in the ground until Cole had gotten Jay into a chokehold. The smaller hybrid squawked annoyed but gave in tapping the other on the arm letting Cole know that he had won and could let the other go.

Cole did and flew off Jay then standing next to the deeply breathing hybrid before offering him a hand which Jay took gladly letting the red-tailed hawk pull him off the ground. Coughing into his elbow Cole let the other breathe looking up at the large oak tree that was directly behind them seeing two pieces of fabric hanging from the hollowed out hole near the top. Scratching his head Cole turned back toward his sparring partner who was taking a drink from his water bottle as a large piece of black fabric pelted Jay in the head. The latter let out an undignified squak before Cole’s vision was obscured by the second piece of fabric causing him to go crashing to the ground in surprise. 

Cole peaked out from the blue fabric to see his Sensei chuckling from the inside of his hollow, wrapped up in a white and gold coat that went to his knees. The old phoenix flew out of the hollow and landed next to the struggling Jay helping the other get the black (what Cole now figured out as a coat) off of his head as Cole tugged the blue jacket off his own head. Holding the offending piece of clothing he saw Sensei holding the black coat before walking over to Cole and taking the one he was holding then giving him the black coat. Sensei threw Jay the blue jacket before nodding to Cole to put the long black coat on while pulling a map out of his own pocket. 

Raising an confused eyebrow Cole pulled the jacket’s sleeves over his arms leaving it unbuttoned as Jay just stared at his jacket in confusion. “Sensei,” Cole started speaking, fiddling with the edge of one of the coat’s pocket. “Why exactly are we putting jackets on?” Jay looked up from where he was sitting as if saying ‘that’s what this is?’

“Well my students, the pack is about to become a little bit bigger.” Sensei pocketed the old dilapidated map again turning toward the red-tailed hawk as Jay came up beside him dressed in the light blue jacket looking highly uncomfortable. Cole noticed that his and Sensei’s coats went to the knees while Jay’s only went to the waist. But it made sense since Cole only wore a crop top and shorts (due to it being the uniform of his assigned class) while Jay wore a ¾ sleeved jumpsuit that ended at his knees. 

“Bigger? Does that mean more hybrids?” Jay questioned as Sensei spread his red and golden wings followed by Cole unwrapping his brown and red ones with Jay doing the same. Cole and Sensei nodded in succession of each other before the three launched into the sky with Cole and Jay following their teacher to where they were to find the new hybrids for the pack.

____

The wind was sharp as it hit Cole in the face, his wings shaking slightly from the cold as they were currently flying over the snow covered Birchwood Forest, a place neither Cole nor Jay had ever been before. While Cole was used to the feeling of being cold since he lived in a place with the four seasons, it was Jay that was really feeling the brunt of it. Jay, who had lived in the desert for his entire life, who had never even seen snow, was complaining his ass off. Sensei was flying a bit ahead of the two so Cole was stuck hearing the brunt of the complaining.

“Why is it so freezing?!” Jay cried from behind his hawk companion as he wrapped the jacket closer around his body and flew up to be side by side with Cole. The hawk rolled his eyes and dropped a few feet in altitude matching Sensei. Jay whined as Cole flew away since he had been using him for extra heat that the jacket wasn’t providing for him. Rolling his eyes playfully (again) Cole watched as Sensei started to dip into the snow-covered trees below, making sure Jay was following behind him Cole pulled his wings to his back and followed his teacher into the trees.

The evergreen trees were dusted with snowflakes as Cole raced pass them, the altitude lowering every second until he spotted Sensei’s red and golden wings expanded to slow his drop and flap once before coming to a stop. Doing the same as his teacher and pack leader Cole’s boots crunched the snow underneath his feet as he stood and pulled the hood of his coat over his head, folding his wings onto his back. Turning around he watched as Jay landed pitifully onto the ground and almost jumped right back into the air with a small scream looking everywhere and only seeing snow. “What the hell is all of this?!”

“Uh, snow?” Cole supplied as Sensei smiled underneath his beard before telling Jay to just land so they could get walking, which Jay responded to with a pout. Cole smiled playfully as the blue jay landed next to him still silently fuming as the three walked on and then deeper into the Birchwood Forest. Instead of focusing on his pouting friend, the hawk looked around him as the pure serenity of the silent forest. Icicles glittered in the sun’s rays, they were frozen stuck to the evergreen’s needle-like leaves as the deep dark green contrasted against the clean white of the snow.

From where he was walking he could see a light red and yellow glow illuminating from Sensei’s hands as it occasionally got brighter or dimmer depending on where he turned. Jay was still letting out small annoyed whines from behind the hawk the entire time they were walking in the snow, occasionally kicking at the snow only to get it on his legs and in his shoes. Around 20 minutes of the blue jay complaining, Cole taking in the scenery, and Sensei tracking the hybrids for the pack they entered an large circular clearing. Staying behind, Cole watched as Sensei started walking in a straight line away from the two younger hybrids while occasionally turning to follow the glow of the gems while Jay went a little bit to the right of Cole while continually glaring at the ground.

As Cole kneeled down to look at a fallen icicle he heard a small snap followed by a falling object from the corner of his peripheral vision; picking up the icicle he turned around and saw a broken branch a few feet away from where he was standing. Giving a short pump of his wings he flew over to the snapped twig staring at it, a few questions started to swirl in his head with the most prominent one being: who snapped it? 

Getting to one of his knees he put down the piece of ice in his hands and traded it for one of the branch pieces, the ends were jagged as they ended into sharp points from the breakage point. Cole’s eyes travelled to the other piece of the twig as something soft and light landed on his head to his surprise. Taking his free hand he felt the top of his head and his fingers ran over a soft object which felt a lot like a well-preened feather. Grabbing the edge of it he brought down to the front of his face, it was a feather as he guessed; colored a creamy white with the ends dipped in pure black.

The feather was clearly from a hybrid due to the size of it being larger than most birds that had that color scheme, it couldn’t have been from Jay since his feathers were largely blue. Also he wasn’t near Cole and it couldn’t have been from Sensei either since his feathers were red or gold and again far away from Cole. So the only solution was he was near another hybrid, one standing right above his head. His eyes widened as he looked up just in time to see a white blur jump from an upper branch and crash right onto him forcing him to fall down onto the ground. Cole let out a short scream as his back smashed onto the snow covered ground, as from behind he heard a loud ‘thump’ as Jay let out a shocked yelp as he probably also landed on the ground. Instead of worrying about his friend Cole focused more on the two legs wrapping around his waist and then straddling his hips.

Cole’s head shot up and his hands went to grab at the hybrid but stopped when one hand grabbed his left wrist and shoved it to the ground while a sharp point jabbed at his neck. His eyes met with two light blue irises staring back at him studying his features while a dagger made of pure ice was underneath his chin, the blade ready to slit his throat at one wrong move. Light blond, almost white hair fell to one side of the hybrid’s face as two large white and black wings extended from his back and yet what really captured Cole’s attention was the light blue aquamarine gemstone hanging from the other’s neck. The hybrid’s legs tightened on his hips as Cole tried to move to no avail, the hawk struggling for a bit before ultimately giving up and relaxing into the snow in defeat as the hybrid’s grip on his wrist loosened a bit.

“Who are you?” The hybrid asked leaning back a little, not much with the dagger still pointed at Cole’s throat. The other gulped, trying to keep from giving a smart-ass response because that’s was only asking for the hybrid to cut his throat open. 

“I’m Cole, and we mean no harm. Now what do you want?” Was the response he settled on watching as the hybrid’s eyes narrowed in response, the dagger starting to dig deeper. Cole’s breath hitched as skin broke, a small trickle of blood dripping down his neck.

The hybrid’s hand placed itself on his chest as he leered down at the hawk as the crimson liquid dripped onto the pure white snow. Cole met the other’s eyes as the two white and black wings shifted and spread out to their full length, almost to assert the other’s dominance over the situation. Cole’s own wings pressed into the ground in slight pain from being laid on and tried to spread out only to clench together as the hybrid glared at them. The hybrid’s hand moved from his chest to the side of his neck taking his chin and turning it side to side clearly trying to inspect Cole for some reason but that didn’t stop a light blush from starting to cover his cheeks.

An short trill came from Cole’s right to which the hybrid looked up and responded with three short clicks as the weight on his body became a little lighter as the hybrid seem to think. He glanced back at Cole who blinked in confusion as two chirps came from his left and he responded with three tweets and a click. The hybrid gave one more sharp glare and let the dagger melt across the other’s necks, and wash away the remaining blood before putting his hands on either sides of Cole’s head and unwrapping his legs, placing his feet on the ground. Rolling to one side the hybrid stood up and brushed off his pure white outfit and walked away from Cole’s peripheral vision.

Cole stayed on the ground for a few seconds trying to fully comprehend what just happened, his wings protesting from underneath him which brought him streaming back to reality. Giving a grunt he flipped over and pushed himself off the ground stretching his wings out happily. Blinking a couple times Cole looked around the area before spotting the hybrid that had sat on him (a snowy owl now that Cole could fully see him) speaking to a scarlet macaw who had a choke grip on Jay who stared at Cole afraid. The scarlet macaw nodded at something the snowy owl said and released Jay to the ground who scrambled over to Cole hiding behind the larger hybrid.

From across the snow Cole spotted Sensei talking to another macaw, only colored blue and looking very similar to the scarlet hybrid. The blue hybrid raised an eyebrow but let Sensei go and joined the owl and other macaw. Sensei smiled at the three, the owl moving his position to be in front of the other two as the scarlet macaw grabbed his hand. Sensei reached into his pocket and pulled out the piece of cloth from before motioning for the three to come closer only getting the owl’s grimace in return.

The two macaws looked toward the owl as the white bird talked to them in low chirps and ticks; the macaws answered with one short screech and a trill as they moved toward Sensei. The snowy owl glanced toward Cole and Jay, body language going stiff as Cole tried to smile gently. Cole frowned pulling his arms his chest, he didn’t like upsetting others and something about the owl was creating a sense of protection within him and he didn’t know what to do. So instead he turned his attention to the two shell-shocked hybrids as Sensei presented two gems, a sparkling ruby and shining citrine.

The red macaw grabbed his gem first and stumbled back in pain as the gem rose and split into two pieces, fire curling around the other’s body as it cemented itself onto the macaw’s left upper arm. The snowy owl had rushed forward at the first sign of pain holding the macaw in surprise as the fire faded away and the gem stilled; now a golden upper arm bracelet decorated with the two pieces of ruby. The snowy owl looked with shock at Sensei, a hand wrapping around the necklace dangling off his chest as the scarlet macaw chirped happily proudly showing the owl and the other macaw hiew piece of jewelry. Sensei turned to blue macaw and offered her the citrine which she took before also dropping to the ground as the citrine turned into a pendant hanging from a black, lace-lined choker.

The owl and scarlet macaw caught the other as she fell, water shifting around feet and the rest of her body before falling to the ground dormant. The two macaws trilled happily both clamoring to each other as the snowy owl stood up toward Sensei pure shock written on his features. 

“Who are you hybrids?” He asked, looking toward Cole and Jay with slight fear, the two having walked closer and were standing a few feet away from Sensei. The old phoenix just smiled in response as the two macaws turned their heads to the others, standing up and beside the snowy owl.

“Just a few hybrids who were looking for their new pack mates, and it appears they found them. So are you willing to come with us?” The two macaws eyes’ almost immediately lit upset the possibility that Sensei had presented but the snowy owl seemed to almost shrink into himself. Cole couldn’t understand anything the three were saying to each other as they went straight into bird calls that they seemed to understand completely. Jay nudged Cole’s side still very annoyed and cold, “Sensei’s kidding right? These surely can’t be the ones we’re looking for.”

Cole shrugged, “I seriously doubt it. I mean, after all, the gems did end up responding to them.” Jay grumbled under his breath as the owl snapped trilly at the other two macaws, rubbing his temple. The macaws gave two small whines and the owl guilty at them before turning to Sensei. ‘Surely he’s not going to agree to come live with us.’

“Alright fine, we will join your pack.” Nevermind went through Cole’s mind as Jay cried in annoyance from his side.


	4. Chapter Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cole and Jay, while still being weary toward their new hybrids are told to spend with their new packmates before they head home. Jay goes to help Kai and Nya unpack while Cole tries to interact with Zane. 
> 
> A few days after arriving back at the hollow, Cole wants to spend more time with Zane and decided to visit his hollow to talk. After letting Cole enter they decided to ask each other a few questions while Cole has to unpack some of his feelings toward his male packmates.
> 
> The next day Cole, Kai, Jay, Zane, and Nya decide to spar until Jay accidentally throws a shrunken and almost hits Zane. Kai becomes upset and does something he regrets. The group splits into two to figure everything out.
> 
> After fixing the issue something strange happens near the forest causing injures to Cole and Kai and the arrival of a new hybrid that only Sensei knows exists.

Somehow they were still located in the Birchwood Forest as Cole and Jay followed the three silent hybrids and their Sensei toward one of the largest trees that they had ever seen. Their trees back at the grove were big enough for hybrids to live in, but the aspen tree they were coming up toward was absolutely huge. At least 40 feet off the ground was a large circular carved out section of the tree with a wooden door keeping it shut tightly. From ahead of the snowy owl, who Cole learned was named Zane, motioned for everyone to follow him. 

Flapping his wings a few times he lifted off into the sky with the two macaws, Kai and Nya respectfully, on his tail as they each landed on the little platform jutting out from the door. Cole and Jay gave each other a look as Sensei folded his wings and waited next to the base of the tree. 

“Sensei? Are we supposed to follow them?” Jay inquired as Sensei smiled from underneath his beard. 

“They’re your packmates now. Why don’t you get to know them a little before the flight home?” Jay looked at Cole for assistance who just gave him a shrug and chose instead to watch as Kai unfroze the ice on the lock that was keeping the door shut and opened it letting Zane and Nya entered. The scarlet macaw smirked at the two hybrids below him and motioned for them to join him. Without waiting for Jay, Cole leapt off the ground and gave one powerful burst of his wings and landed next to awaiting macaw.

Kai blushed as Cole crossed his arms, and quickly entering the hollow. Cole smirked softly behind the macaw and entered the hollow as Jay landed behind him. The hollow was split into four sections; one was covered in various furs and winter-themed objects with Zane packing a few books into a burlap bag. The second section was bright blue with Nya unstringing a strand of blue and yellow fairy lights. The next was modeled after what Cole could only assume was a blacksmith shop, Kai picking up a broadsword with red gems in the handle. The final section was were Cole and Jay were standing, a small kitchen next to the wall and various bean bags next to a small bookshelf. 

Jay wandered over to where Nya was, the only one the blue jay didn’t seem to have a weird grudge against. With Kai handling sharp weaponry that he really didn’t want to deal with, he wandered over to the silent hybrid that had sat on him. Zane had already closed the burlap sack was sitting on the edge of his nest fiddling with the sapphire hanging around his neck. 

“Hey.” Zane looked up at the hawk in front of him with two big doe eyes, completely different from the sharp look from before. Cole’s heart stuttered in chest at the look but simply ignored it and motioned to a spot next to the owl. “May I sit?” 

Zane shrugged then moving over slightly and letting Cole join him on the edge of his nest. “So,” Cole started with Zane looking away ashamed. 

“I’m sorry.” The owl spoke softly, almost inaudibly had Cole not been sitting so close to him. “I shouldn’t have gotten so defensive, especially not to my own kind.” The owl let out a soft laugh, glancing back at Cole. 

Cole scratched at his neck only to pull away with a sharp hiss remembering the small cut on his neck from the ice dagger. Zane let out a small chirp in concern, hands immediately going to inspect the cut on Cole’s neck before pulling back abruptly. From Zane’s uniform, Cole knew the owl was apart of the healer class and decided to led the owl’s hand to his neck giving the other a soft nod of confirmation.

Zane glanced nervously at the other hybrid before running his fingertips near the cut, feeling over the dried blood. The owl bit his lip in concentration as he turned to the side of his nest pulling up a white bag with a red cross on it. He pulled out a moist towelette, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol, and roll of gauze with gauze tape. Zane looked at Cole for permission to continue as the hawk smiled softly letting the owl start cleaning off the blood surrounding his cut. 

The two sat in silence while Nya and Kai talked with Jay across the room as the blue jay helped the macaws pack, Zane eventually putting some rubbing alcohol on the towelette and softly rubbing on the cut to clean it. His cut started to sting and Cole hissed in discomfort with Zane quickly apologizing as he finished off cleaning the cut. Putting the used towelette on his lap Zane picked up the gauze wrapping two layers around Cole’s neck before ripping off a piece of tape and taping the loose ends of the gauze together. Zane placed the gauze, tape and rubbing alcohol back into the medical bag before getting up and throwing the towelette away in a trash can. 

Cole rubbed his bandaged neck as Zane trilled to Kai and Nya getting the two macaws to quickly place their last items into their bags and rush over to the owl each quickly conversing to each other. Zane turned to Cole and Jay as Kai and Nya left the hollow and dropped down to meet Sensei. 

“Hey Jay you can go down to where the others are if you want. And uh, Cole do you mind grabbing my medical bag?” Zane asked as he wandered over to his nest grabbing his main bag. Jay glanced at Cole but left the hollow. 

From his side of the nest, Cole picked up Zane’s discarded medical bag and following the owl outside the hollow. From behind Zane grabbed the door and shut it before quickly freezing it over as his gem glowed a soft blue light. Giving a soft half smile to the hawk, the hybrids joined the group at the base of aspen. Cole and Jay strayed toward the back of the group as Sensei explained how the grove worked and what the three should expect of the pack and the pack dynamics. Once the new hybrids agreed to everything they all launched into the sky and started the long journey home. 

____

Three days had passed since Kai, Nya, and Zane arrived and slowly they were starting to integrate actually quite well into the pack dynamic. Jay seemed to have a surprising strong connection with the macaws, with Kai matching Jay’s general enthusiasm and personality while Nya shared Jay’s love of mechanics. Despite the general rough meeting Zane was starting to warm up to Cole. 

Twilight started to fall over the grotto at the end of the third day, Sensei was already meditating in his hollow with Kai, Jay, and Nya playing a card game that the siblings had brought from their old hollow. Cole however was standing at the bottom of Zane’s tree hollow trying to hype himself up. As much as the two were starting to get closer they were still generally nervous around each other. 

Cole had already started to catch feelings for his male packmates. Everytime they did something he could feel his heart beat slightly harder just by seeing them do something as simple as smiling. Jay was the best friend he never had and seemed to get the hawk on a deep level that Cole didn’t even know he had . Kai, despite being the only one he didn’t know well, was undeniably gorgeous and kept up with his workout routine just as hard as Cole did; something he admired very much. Zane was a mystery, as soft as a dove but could turn as a sharp as a knife. 

Zane’s head peaked out of his hollow looking down at Cole’s small existential crisis about the hotness of his packmates. The owl opened his palm above the distracted hawk letting a soft snowfall drift down toward the hybrid. Almost immediately Cole felt the cold of snow fall upon his shoulder gain his attention. Glancing up he saw Zane chuckle softly and Cole felt a soft smile grace his face. 

Opening his wings Cole flew up to where Zane was lying down at the edge of the opening to his hollow, the owl giving him an innocent look. Rolling his eyes playfully he watched Zane get up and led him into the single room of the hollow. A stack of books were on the nest-side table, one was left open on the edge of the piece of furniture. Zane’s medical bag was also kept close to the side of his nest, but only ‘just in case’ as the owl had said when Cole asked about it the first day at the grotto.

“So,” Cole started as he landed on the wooden floor of the hollow. “I was wondering if we could talk.” Zane gave him a confused look and eventually shrugged patting the mattress inside the nest as an invitation. 

“Sure, is everything alright?” Inquired the snowy owl once Cole had sat down next the bird. Cole blinked as if not expecting the question, since he really just came in to talk to the lonely hybrid.

“Hm? Yeah, yeah. I honestly wanted to get to know you more.” Now it was Zane’s turn to look surprised starting to almost seemed to shrink in on himself. 

“I highly doubt that,” Zane replied with a small uncomfortable chuckle. 

Cole frowned and placed a hand on the other’s shoulder. “I mean it Zane.”

 

The owl blinked once more then sighing as he nodded. “Alright then, what do you want to know?”

“Well, how did you end up with Kai and Nya?” Cole inquired. Zane’s eyes started avoiding his own as Zane bit his lip in hestation, mulling over the right thing to say. Something traumatic must of happened to the siblings for them to leave their parents and join Zane in the middle of the forest. Now that he thought about it, what happened to Zane to live alone in the forest with no biological family at all?

Due to hybrid culture, packs of hybrids were always 10 or more in a large open space with somewhere for them to nest. Yet Kai, Nya, and Zane lived alone in a secluded part of the most uninhabitable places for hybrids or groundwalkers even to live and seemed perfectly content with their situation at hand. As far as Cole could remember, there were no other hybrids around for them to hang out with. Zane also already had his gem when he met the rest of his pack and seemed overly protective of it. That to was unnatural from the common protection that other hybrids felt toward their gems.

“By unfortunate circumstance I’m afraid,” Zane started still carefully mulling over his words. “I still love them to death of course, Nya’s an absolute sweetheart and Kai… well Kai is everything to me.” Zane’s cheeks stared to reddened as his wings curled up on his back. 

Cole raised an eyebrow at that; they’re not dating, are they? He tried to recall any sort of interaction the two had but hell, Zane barely left his hollow and Kai was always around Jay and Nya. 

“Cole?” The hawk looked back up at the sound of his name, shaking off the remains of his thoughts turning his head back toward Zane. 

“Oh yeah, so then how did you end up in the forest anyway?” Zane’s eyes widened in response before eventually leaning on Cole’s shoulder. With that small movement Cole’s heartbeat increased slightly because Zane was soft and cute and oh my god he was so gay. 

“My dad moved my family there at an early age. The forest is all I’ve known for my entire life. Hell, I didn’t even know there were seasons other then winter until Kai and Nya told me about them.” He chuckled softly, fingers playing with his pendant as Cole furrowed his brows in concern.

He really, really wanted to ask about Zane’s parents but considering the fact that he lived alone with Kai and Nya the answer to his question was probably not a very good one. Zane yawned from where he was still resting on his shoulder peering at the hawk hybrid through his long pale lashes, blood rushing to Cole’s cheeks in an instant. The two instantly looked away from each other but Zane still didn’t remove his head from Cole’s shoulder. 

They stayed in a soft brief silence as Cole mulled over what to ask next, but Zane beat him to it. “Were you upset when Kai, Nya, and I joined the pack?”

 

Cole paused in sheer surprise, he clearly didn’t want to lie but he didn’t want to tell the truth either. Yet here was Zane was doing his best to tell him anything that Cole wanted to know so it was only fair.

“Yes and no. Jay and I were not exactly warm to the idea of welcoming hybrids that tried to y’know, murder us at first glance. But I think I speak for Jay and myself when I say that we are very glad that you all decided to join us. We just need to get to know you better.” Zane grinned, seeming happy with the answer. After all it was technically the truth.

“So, anything else you want to ask me in particular?” Cole bit his lip thinking briefly that he wanted to ask. 

“How did you get that necklace? I’m assuming that it’s your elemental gem.” The pale teen next to him shifted, pulling his legs up under his body and leaning more of his weight onto Cole. Blood rushed once again to Cole’s cheeks but he kept a calm hold on himself despite it. 

“It was given to me by my father. The last time I saw him he gave me this. Necklaces were my family’s jewelry of choice,” Zane gave a small laugh despite the very obvious tears curling up by his eyes. He quickly blinked them away and clutched the necklace tighter. “It’s all I have left of them.”

“Zane,” Cole whispered softly. “I’m so sorry. No one should have to go through what you did.” The hybrid’s chin slightly trembled in response.

“No point in dwelling on the past right?” He replied trying to change the topic. 

The two decided to spend the rest of the time together in silence simply enjoying each other’s presence. Cole didn’t even realize the time had passed until he felt all of Zane’s weight slump against him and soft snores coming from him. Cooing gently at the sleeping hybrid, he carefully moved the other fully into the nest trying to wake him. After getting Zane settled he got up watching from the outside of the nest as Zane curled around the various pillows layering the nest.

Blowing out the candle that Zane kept on the nest-side table Cole walked as quietly as he could out of the hollow before gliding down to the bottom of the tree. Cole could hear the muted noises of Kai, Jay, and Nya laughing hysterically at something, shaking his head fondly he walked across the grotto to his own hollow. With two powerful push of his wings he flew into the opening, once landing he yawned treadding over to his own nest. Climbing into the nest he curled up around a large black pillow that his mom had given to him when he was little before letting deep sleep overcome his tired mind.

____

Morning rolled around sooner than Cole would have liked and would have kept sleeping but Jay had flown in and sat on him until he got up. Pushing the short blue jay off him with a grumble he rolled to the side of his nest and pushed himself out of it. 

“C’mon Cole! It’s time to train! Kai, Zane and Nya are gonna join us this time!” Jay commented as Cole brushed out his bed head. Cole grunted in response, for he was not a morning person on any level. Jay glared at him but left the hawk to brushing his hair and flew down to the center of the grotto. 

Cole followed out after a few minutes seeing the other four standing around with Jay trying to explain how to use shirkens to Zane. Kai and Nya were sparring a little off to the side when Jay tried to demonstrate how to throw a shuriken. Suddenly Nya fell to the ground with short cry of shock which gained Zane’s immediate attention, he losing his focus on Jay as he threw the shuriken. Zane started to move toward Nya when the Jay realized his mistake and cried out in panic. 

Zane heard the cry to late and he was never going to able to move in time, however a golden sword sliced the weapon in half before it had a chance to make an impact. Kai stood protectively in front of Zane, wings flared out to their full length, fire in his eyes with his sword drawn and the two pieces of the weapon near his feet. 

Silence filled the courtyard as Kai slowly lowered his wings glaring at Jay with pure rage. Zane was the first to move as he carefully placed his hand on Kai’s shoulder, the macaw’s head whipping around to face him. 

His eyes soften as his wings drooped to the ground and the sword returned to his side. The macaw turned fully placing a hand on Zane’s cheek whispered something that Cole couldn’t hear.

Jay seemed to stutter back to life launching into multiple apologies, tears starting to well on the sides of his eyes. Turning his head back to Jay, Kai opened his mouth to say something but quickly refrained when Zane let out a panicked whine. Kai’s hand twitched as he sighed but followed the owl as Zane led him to his own hollow. While watching the two leave Cole could see Jay try to walk after but refrained when Nya gave him a warning look.

From Cole’s side he heard Jay made a sad, regretful noise. As two sets of wings disappeared into Kai’s hollow, everyone, minus Jay, let out a collective sigh. Nya kicked the broken pieces of the shurikens as Cole went to Jay to try and stop the few tears slipped down his cheeks. The blue macaw flittered over to Cole and Jay trying to calm down the distressed blue jay. 

“Jay, it’s alright! It was just a mistake.” Nya tried to comfort as Jay looked solemnly at Kai’s hollow, Cole let Nya take over opting to just wrap a wing around Jay instead. If Cole had to admit watching both Jay throw the shirken and Kai give him hell’s glare scared him to the core. Jay finally quieted and kept saying he wanted to apologize only to have Nya tell him that he should let Zane help Kai defuse from his anger. 

Instead the three decided to sit down in a small circle trying to figure out how to get Kai to forgive Jay for an honest mistake. Nya explained that Kai needed to work on forgiving others, especially those tried to harm or accidently harmed those close to him. Cole understood to an extent, he held a deep harboring grudge against groundwalkers but that in particular wasn’t an accident. This however was an accident, and yet then again Cole barely knew Kai. Even he could tell that Kai was very hot headed and thought with his heart instead of his head.

That’s where Zane came in he figure, the two balancing each other out. Kai thought with his heart and Zane thought with his head. They were each other’s fire and ice, cool and collected versus hothead and brash. Yet somehow, they coexisted not only peacefully but almost in each other’s orbits, that they were each other’s sun and moon. 

Nya saw their confusion with her explanation for Kai’s protection toward Zane and herself so she started to tell stories to help them understand their relationship. Zane was a year older then Kai and Nya when he took them in but helped the two to grow mentally due to them having to grow up in order to survive. Kai when he was seventeen took a liking to Zane, a romantic liking which confirmed Cole’s suspicion to the two being in a relationship. 

Nya explained that when Kai was finally eighteen he confessed to Zane that he loved him romantically and was surprised when Zane confessed to feeling the same. The two were overjoyed and quickly entered into a relationship together. Zane took a little longer getting used to everything that came with a relationship due to being isolated from others for much longer then Kai and Nya were. Nya was fully supportive of their relationship and could see the mental toll on Kai for being away from Zane the past few days.

“He seemed fine to me,” Jay interjected still fiddling with his fingers. A nervous trait that Cole had picked up on over the few months they had lived together at the hollow. Nya smiled explaining that while Kai always thought with his heart and had learned a few mannerisms to keep his true feelings from being seen. Next to him Cole felt Jay deflate softly before Nya put a hand on his leg.

“Now that doesn’t mean he didn’t love spending time with you. Every night since we got here Kai told me two things. One he missed seeing Zane and two he adored spending time with you Jay.” He smiled at that and stared longingly at the hollow. Cole asked for more stories from Nya opting to ask for ones on the funnier side. 

____

Zane pulled Kai into the hollow watching as the fiery hybrid throw his sword on the ground near his nest with a loud clatter. With soft footsteps Zane treadded over to Kai wrapping his hands around the Kai’s back feeling the muscles lose their tension. Kai’s hands held Zane’s as the owl placed his head in the crook of Kai’s neck. The macaw’s wings had dropped down to the ground letting Zane stand comfortably behind the other. 

“Do you want to talk?” Voice barely above a whisper as Zane shifted his head feeling Kai slump back into the other’s grasp. Keeping one hand in Kai’s, Zane led the macaw over to his nest climbing in with Kai following behind. A few seconds ticked by before Kai moved suddenly scooping up his boyfriend in his arms clutching him close and letting his wings wrap protectively around the two of them. 

Zane squacked at the initial movement just letting Kai manhandle him into his lap. The owl’s head was held against Kai’s chest with his arms wrapped securely around him. From Kai’s arms Zane slowly comforted the macaw who kept mumbling about how he almost let someone hurt him. Rubbing Kai’s back and preening some of Kai’s feathers that he could reach Zane simply whispered that it was an accident and even if he did get hit he would be fine.

Looking up at his mate’s eyes Zane frowned softly seeing a few tears well up in the corners. Now Zane was concerned, Kai was usually very emotional that much was true but nearly crying from almost getting hit by a shuriken? Something else was up with his Kai.

“Kai, honey, what is really bothering you?” Only feeling the subtle shift of Kai’s feathers he huffed against Kai’s chest. Shifting so he was sitting cross-legged in front of his mate he looked Kai in the eyes the macaw stared back, clearly trying to hold back something. 

“Kai,” Zane warned feeling the macaw grunt in defeat keeping a hold on his owl partner.

“I didn’t mean to be so harsh to Jay…” He whispered, not daring to raise his voice any louder. “I was just scared for you and angry. But I don’t want to lose my friend.”

“It was just an accident, I’m sure Jay knows that.” Zane responded with a soft voice, moving so that he was sitting across from Kai. 

“But Jay doesn’t know me! What if I really screwed everything up?” Bringing one hand to Kai’s eyes, Zane wiped away the stray tears. 

“I highly doubt that. Nya’s down there, don’t you think she will explain everything?” Kai blinked, furrowing his brows. “You know I’m right. No more worrying about an accident, I am positive Jay will forgive you.” 

Kai nodded pulling his wings back releasing the two from his feathered shield. Taking another breath Kai gave a soft smile to Zane, apologizing for his behavior during the situation

“Do not be, you saved me from being hit. Jay will forgive you I am sure of it.” Kai once again scooped up his boyfriend, placing Zane on his lap holding his hands.

“I know. Thank you.” Dipping down Kai caught Zane’s lips in a soft, short kiss. Closing his eyes, Zane relished in the kiss. After all he barely saw Kai the past three days. All too soon, in his opinion, Kai pulled away resting his forehead against Zane’s still not letting go of the owl’s hands.

____

Around two hours later Kai and Zane left the hollow with the first thing to happen was Kai and Jay blurting out apologies to each other. With his hand in Zane’s, Kai explained that he really didn’t mean to glare so harshly at Jay or do anything that would upset the blue jay. Jay rebuked it saying that Kai was only trying to protect his boyfriend and it was HIS fault that everything happened. Truly though it was neither’s fault but an unfortunate amount of circumstances that led them to that point.

The two made up, but Zane noticed something in both Jay and Cole when they saw his and Kai’s hands intertwined. They seemed almost hurt, like they were hiding their true feelings. Zane’s been around Kai and Nya (and even himself) to notice someone holding in their true emotions. Hell, even when his dads and brother were still alive he could tell that sometimes they weren’t telling the truth to him. 

Instead of prying he let the two hybrids make up and hug each in forgiveness. Cole gave him a small smile when they made eye contact during the entire thing, Zane returning it. 

Zane’s thoughts started to wander as time ticked on, ever since coming to the grove, and even meeting the three hybrids something’s felt off to him. It was part of the reason he retracted back into his new home trying to figure out the source of the unsettling feeling.

From his youth, Zane was given a small purple crystal from his father. His father had known about Zane’s “sixth sense” since he was very young and enchanted the crystal to help find the source of any of Zane’s unnatural feelings. Using the crystal took a lot of energy, unlike using his elemental power and after using the crystal he would pass out. 

Yet, when he tried to use the crystal lately nothing was coming up. It was blank, like smoke and mirrors clouding his thoughts and refusing to show a probable solution. That was until a large boom echoed through the forest. Cole immediately threw himself over Jay and Nya with Kai pulling Zane behind his wingspan, another boom echoed the forest this one closer to the hunched over hybrids. Suddenly Zane felt Kai grunt in pain and a forced breath from Cole. 

Healer instincts started kicking in but he was forced to wait a few seconds before feeling Kai’s wings move away. After a few seconds he had to catch his mate when Kai stumbled and let out a pained whine. From behind Zane turned to see Cole blinking worriedly at him before turning his head around toward where the blasts had come from. Jay and Nya moved from under Cole’s wings each keeping a hand on Cole’s chest just in case. 

“What...was that?” Kai wheezed from while Zane was keeping a hold on him. 

“I don’t know,” Replied Cole letting Jay and Nya move him closer to where Zane was helping Kai to sit. Staring at Kai’s wings and back he frowned deeply seeing various pieces of shrapnel from the blasts, clearly there was wood from trees and a few rocks buried in his skin. 

“Nya, can you hold Kai for me for a second?” Zane murmured picking out the largest piece of shrapnel as Nya raised an eyebrow but did as she was told taking the majority of Kai’s weight. Moving over to Cole he was not surprised to see almost the exact thing that he saw on Kai’s back. Keeping one hand on Cole’s chest and another on his back Zane asked for Jay to grab his medical bag from his hollow. 

Giving Cole a worried look he relented and flew off to Zane’s hollow to grab the bag. While trying to gauge the damage on Cole’s back and how it differed from Kai’s; a soft flutter of wings dragged the four hybrids attention to a poorly hidden hybrid tucking his body behind a tree trunk. 

“You can come out.” Kai called out wincing slightly as the hybrid shuffled into the light. He was young, looking about no older than sixteen. The boy was a parakeet, with gold, green and white feathered wings; he wore a green jumpsuit with gold decals on the side. His hair was a light blond and had bright green emerald eyes. 

The boy inched closer to the four, now five hybrids with Jay returning the medical bag now kneeling by Zane’s side. From the young hybrid’s body language he was clearly nervous only coming about two feet before the group.

“Is there a Sensei Wu here?” He spoke in a small voice, similar to that of a child’s. The group nodded with Jay once again flying off, now to get Sensei. 

With one hand still keeping Cole up Zane opened up his medical bag grabbing two pairs of tweezers to pick out the pieces of shrapnel from both Cole and Kai’s backs. Handing a pair to Nya he helped guide her to picking out the largest pieces. The boy watched concerned as Zane pulled out a small wooden shard from Cole’s back. The hawk let out a soft grunt of pain while Kai was relatively silent.

“Are they alright?” The boy asked nodding toward Cole and Kai, but before any of them could reply there was a shocked gasp from behind them. Turning around they were greeted with an absolute shocked Sensei and concerned Jay coming up from behind. 

“Lloyd? What are you, how did you…?” Sensei trailed off leaving the group in concerned state of confusion. Sensei was almost never at a loss for words so what was so special about this kid? Lloyd shrugged with a sheepish smile.

“It’s a long story Uncle but that’s not why I’m here.” Sensei raised an eyebrow concerned letting Jay join the rest. Both Zane and Nya had paused what they were doing as Lloyd seemed to fumble on his words.

“Someone destroyed the monastery and surrounding town. Everyone’s gone, I am the only one left.”


	5. Chapter Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lloyd is introduced to group of hybrids learning that he is related to Sensei. Lloyd finally gets his own elemental gem while Sensei explains what he knows to the group.
> 
> Kai, Cole, and Zane spend the rest of the day together while Zane treats to the others wounds. Cole starts to question the twos' relationship and how nonchalant the two are to Cole in general.
> 
> Nya, Jay, Lloyd, and Sensei Wu set off to the burned remains of Lloyd's village and what they find is a mix between what they needed and what they never wanted to happen. Meanwhile Cole and Kai worry about the safety of the four.

Pure and utter silence fell of the seven hybrids as Lloyd’s news sunk in. Sensei appeared as if he was going to faint due to the news. The only sound was Cole and Kai’s labored breathing as the adrenaline was starting to wear off. Blood was starting to seep into the dirt from the deeper wounds carved into their backs.

“Uncle, I don’t have anyone to go to. You’re the only one left for me.” Lloyd’s voice quivered almost about to break into a million pieces. Sensei was stoic hiding behind his kasa seeming to shrink into his robe. Lloyd start to shake tears already trailing down his cheeks.

“Dad’s gone!” Lloyd broke down into sobs wings flaring out and his body collapsing to shakes. Sensei moved faster than any of them had seen wrapping Lloyd in his wings muffling the boys sobs. Putting the tweezers down Zane’s brain finally kicked in to how to treat shrapnel.

“Shit,” He mumbled immediately directing Nya to putting her tweezers down. Grabbing pieces of gauze he held one over the large wound to stifle the bleeding until he could treat it properly. Giving the other to Nya he apologized with Kai and Cole to tell him that it was okay in hushed voices.

The group exchanged uncomfortable glances at each other as the sound of Lloyd’s cries started quiet down considerable. Only the sounds of the two coming muffled between Sensei’s wings. Jay moved to where Cole and Zane were sitting running a tentative touch over the top of the pieces of shrapnel. Raising his free hand up he held Jay’s hand shaking his head and placing it back in Jay’s lap.

Jay nodded in understanding instead whispering something in Cole’s ear. The hawk turning his head to reply. A few more minutes rolled by when Sensei’s wings rolled back to reveal Lloyd wiping the tears from his cheeks as Sensei pulled the parakeet into a soft hug.

Releasing Lloyd the pair turned to the confused group of hybrids, Sensei shaking his head with a fond smile. Lloyd kept his eyes cast toward the ground occasionally raising the edge of sleeve to wipe the tears left over on his eyes.

“I’m sure you’re all wondering who this is,” Sensei spoke gesturing to Lloyd. The group nodded while the pain started kicking in completely for Kai and Cole.

“This is Lloyd, my nephew.” Sharp inhales and shocked gasps came from the group. “He’s the final member of our pack. I’ve had his elemental gem since the start.”

 

Now it was Lloyd’s turn to whip his head around to look at his uncle. Eyes widened in utter disbelief as Sensei grabbed a gem from the inside of his robe.

“Lloyd, this is yours.” Tentative fingers reached out toward the sparkling peridot gem . His wings shot out and flowers grew around where he was sitting. With a shout of either pain or surprise, Zane couldn’t tell, the peridot refitted itself into a single earring.

Lloyd’s peridot dangled from the end of his earlobe, the sun rays glinting off the edge. As soon as it started the teen’s body relaxed; the only proof of the gem’s power being the red roses and periwinkles surrounding his legs.

“I will explain everything soon my students, but for now you should tend your injuries.” With that Sensei stood up, albeit slowly, leading Lloyd to the center tree. Soon the two were gone leaving the pack with too many questions to comprend in one day.

“Uh, alright…” Mumbled Jay helping Zane lift Cole to his feet.

“I do not want you two to use your wings yet,” Zane explained as Kai tried to stand. “Stay there, I’ll help you to my nest in a second.”

Jay stood on one side with Zane on the other picking the hawk up bridal style flying off to Zane’s hollow. It was unsteady with Cole almost falling a couple of times but the two got him inside safely. Once both of their feet were on the ground Jay let Zane lead him to the right side of the room.

Placing Cole down Jay supported Cole’s back letting Zane grabbed a wool blanket that was hidden in the nest-side table. Jay’s first question was, “Where the hell did he get that?!”. This was justified when Zane unfolded the blanket and revealed that it was two blankets.

Once the two blankets were set down and unfolded the two hybrids maneuvered their much heavier packmate onto his stomach so his back was easier to get to. Cole let out an undignified grunt followed by hushed apology from Zane and Jay.

“I have to go get Kai, Cole are you alright?” Zane maneuvered Cole’s wings so they were spread out at full length, the hawk letting out a contented sigh. Jay moved out of the way, petting some of Cole’s hair out of his eyes.

“As good as I can be Frosty,” Replied Cole with a pained chuckle. Zane frowned his hand pausing where it brushing out some of Cole’s feathers. Pushing off of his knee Zane stood to go get Kai then pausing.

“Hold on,” Was all Jay could hear from Zane’s nearly inaudible voice watching as the other grabbed a pillow from his nest returning to Cole’s side and lifting the hawk’s head up.

“This should be more comfortable,” Cole blinked as Zane left the hollow in a bit of rush, pink blush on the edge of his ears. Then it was just Cole and Jay together in the hollow, small trickles of blood falling onto the white wool blanket under Cole’s body.

“So Zane and Kai huh?” Jay started trying to start a conversation. Cole gave a annoyed huff turning his head away from Jay. With a sigh Jay shuffled his body down to rest by Cole. Electric blue met deep green with a remorseful look, because truthfully Jay was in the same boat as Cole.

While spending time with Kai he couldn’t help but crush on the handsome macaw. So the news of Zane and Kai being a couple was quite the shock to the two friends. Pulled from his thoughts Jay raised an scarred eyebrow as he tried to decipher Cole’s mumbles.

“What?” Peering at Jay from beneath his lashes Cole curled as much as he could on himself.

“We’ve only known them for four days Jay! Why have I fallen this hard?”

“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”

A flutter of wings came from outside stopping the two from continuing on. Cole tried to turn his neck to see, doing so but slowly. Kai was placed a good ways away from him spreading his wings just like Cole.

“Nya, mind grabbing a pillow for Kai? I’m going to start on Cole’s wounds.” Shuffling over to his dresser he kept near the other side of his nest Zane pulled out a larger bottle of antiseptic. Zane stared slightly annoyed realizing he was going to have hurt the pair since he needed to get both of the shirts off.

“I have to get both of your shirts off. I apologize in advance.” With Jay’s help they pulled Cole off into a kneeling position. Pulling down on the zipper he successfully got it unzipped. Cole whimpered in pain as Jay and Zane had to pull away the fabric from his back and bend his wings to fit through the hole in the back of the shirt.

It took a couple tries but they eventually got Cole out of the shirt and lowered him back onto the ground. Jay folded Cole’s bloody top giving it to Zane; the owl took the top to clean later. Zane did the same thing with Kai with Nya’s help, the macaw let out a pained shout when Zane pulled a little too hard on his wing.

Zane apologized profusely until he fully got Kai’s shirt off and put it on top of Cole’s. Nya let Kai lie back down as Zane rubbed softly on where he pulled roughly on Kai’s wings. Turning back to Cole after getting Kai to relax a little he picked the antiseptic back up again and shuffled back over to the hawk.

“This might sting a little,” Pouring a small amount of antiseptic on a piece of cloth Zane carefully dabbed around the entry point of a piece of small rock. Just like Zane had warned Cole let out a pitiful whimper at the stinging pain.

“I’m sorry…” He moved from wound to cleaning each one, changing the cloth so the wounds wouldn’t infect each other. Cole tried to look as best as he could at the healer eventually giving up. Kai instead watched Zane’s careful movements while Nya did the best she could doing the same to his back.

“Zane, is this alright?” Placing down the blood covered cloth next to him finally having cleaned Cole’s punctures with the antiseptic. Shuffling over to Nya he gave her a nod of approval taking the cloth and cleaning up the edges.

“You did good Nya,” Smiling he wandered over to his dresser hearing the whispers of the two hybrids behind him. After sterilizing two seperate tweezers, he wrapped one pair in a piece of gauze setting it down near Cole. Grabbing a silver bowl Zane made sure it was near him so dispose of the shrapnel pieces.

“I’m going to be as gentle as I can.” Kai huffed ruffling his feathers. Aiming for one of the small pieces he had to push back some of the skin to get a good grip. Kai whined unhappily at the sensation. Cole reached a hand in comfort, lowkey surprised when Kai took the offering as Zane continued to pick out the little bits and pieces.

“There’s not that many,” Zane said after about ten minutes leaning back on his heels. “These will heal in about four days, a week at most. Same for you Cole.” Cooling down his hand he rubbed it over Kai’s back, acting like an ice pack to the irritated skin.

Kai let out a sigh of relief and after a couple seconds Zane removed his hand. Cutting off a large piece of gauze he taped one side onto Kai’s uninjuried abdomen and - with Nya’s help - wrapped it around Kai’s body eventually taping down the other side. Then he tightly went it over it with a layer of bandage.

“Does that feel okay?” Kai let out a happy hum in acknowledge to Zane’s question. The latter smiled before moving over to help Cole who’s pain was decreasing but still had a powerful kick.

“Alright, let’s get this stuff out of you yeah?” Cole turned his neck to peer at Zane as he worked using the second pair of sterilized tweezers to pull and prod the pieces of shrapnel out of his back. The hawk was a little more louder then Kai was, but that was understandable since they used to live in the forest where there were more exposed to injuries.

With every pained grunt Zane apologized working as fast he could while still making sure the wounds weren’t getting any worse. Getting all the shrapnel out of Cole’s back took a little longer since Kai’s due to there being a bit more in his back.

This was understandable due to the latter being closer to the blast radius than Kai had been. Twenty minutes had passed when Zane finally pulled out the last piece of shrapnel. Like he had with Kai, Zane cooled down the temperature of his hand and ran over Cole’s irritated skin.

Almost automatically Cole subconsciously shuffled his body closer to Zane. In response the owl ran his hand through Cole’s hair for a few seconds. Like with Kai, he ripped a large piece of gauze and with Jay’s help instead of Nya’s, wrapped up the wounds.

To finish off he tightened it off with one layer of bandage. Wrapping around each other’s wings was always challenge but simply rounding around the bone connecting the wing to the back always worked for him.

“Everything alright Cole?” Peering down at the hawk he received a tired smile. Standing up he watched Cole’s eyes shut, no doubt Kai had already fallen asleep. Nya and Jay had said their goodbyes leaving Zane to clean up which was alright to him, it was late into the afternoon and most of them hadn’t had lunch yet.

Kai was indeed asleep as he cleaned up placing the tweezers in a special cleaning solution and burying the shrapnel in a marked hole behind his tree hollow. Once returning to the hollow, he picked up Cole and Kai’s discarded crop tops washing off the blood in the sink before leaving the wet shirts in the shower to clean completely later. He then quickly washed the blood and chemicals off his hands in his home’s small bathroom and then grabbed a sandwich that was kept in the room’s small refrigerator.

He collapsed in between the two hybrids, wrapping each of his wings around their heads. He was not surprised when Kai cuddled into his wing and while Cole seemed impassive he didn’t move away. Taking a bite he studied the sun in the sky noticing that it was about four in the afternoon.

His sandwich sat abandoned by his side, the plastic still covering the contents. Cole shifted trying to roll onto his back causing Zane to (gently) reposition him so that he didn’t cause more harm to the lacerations. The hawk let out annoyed huff but settled back onto his stomach, wings splayed and his breath evened out.

It dawned on him that he would probably have to stay awake during the rest of the day and night to make sure that the two didn’t roll over or do something to irritate the cuts.

“I should probably eat something…” Zane thought to himself but just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Nya would scold him since he had a bad habit of forgetting to eat. With a halfhearted glance at the sandwich he pulled his knees up to his chest and watched the clock in the corner tick away.

____

Kai woke up about three hours later, not surprised to see the still uneaten sandwich and Zane curled around a well-used medical textbook. What did surprise him was seeing Cole fully awake just staring at the hawk. His shuffling drew Zane’s attention and he received a warm smile.

“Did you have a good nap?” The owl inquired.

“Yeah, how long have you guys been awake?”

“Cole woke up about ten minutes ago, I didn’t sleep if you were wondering.” Kai frowned, guessing by the sad looking piece of food near the wall Zane also hadn’t eaten.

As if on queue Cole’s stomach let out a hungry rumble pulling an embarrassed laugh from the latter and a snort from Zane.

“I might be a little hungry,” Cole responded sheepishly. Zane and Kai shared an smile as the owl helped move the hawk into a sitting position and tried to not irritate the cuts. Kai was quickly tended after with Zane going to fetch food for the two.

“Was that Zane’s?” Cole leaned over to Kai pointing at the sandwich between them.He spoke in a soft whisper so Zane didn’t hear, Kai giving a defeated nod.

“Probably, he has a bad habit of not eating even if he needs too.” Cole’s mouth formed in a deep frown, brows furrowing. The two quickly noticed Zane approaching dropping the subject until later.

“Here, it’s all I have. I can go get something from your hollows if you want.” Zane had given the two similar versions of his own sandwich, only Kai’s had apple slices and Cole’s had extra lettuce.

“No this is alright.” Affirmed Kai with a happy noise from Cole who had already started eating. The two other hybrids chuckled at his enthusiasm with Kai unwrapping his own.

However, Zane kept his food where it was making no move to grab instead returning to his book. Huffing, Kai grabbed Zane’s food and unwrapping it for him. He forced the latter to put his book down and pretty much shoved the food in Zane’s face.

“You need to eat snowflake.” Kai requested, instead Zane fixated on an invisible point in space. Cole watched unhappily as Zane continued to refuse the food, even when Kai bartered a kiss if he ate a piece.

Kai glanced over to Cole for help in getting his boyfriend to eat something. Cole stuffed the last of his food into his mouth and slowly (and painfully) scooched his way over to the pair. The two ripped the sandwich into a few bite-sized pieces, and still Zane refused it.

“Alright,” Cole started gaining the two’s attention. “Why aren’t you eating anything Zane?”

The owl blinked shifting uncomfortably only slightly relaxing when Kai rubbed up Zane’s arms. He sighed defeated, merely shrugging in defeat.

“I’m just not hungry. I am sorry.” Something clicked in Kai’s brain, remembering something that he had completely forgotten. When Zane was stressed, he hated to eat; Nya and himself were stress-eaters like most hybrids were and yet Zane already had a dislike for eating but he hated eating when he was stressed.

Honestly it was all really ironic because Zane loved to cook, and he was an amazing cook at that. At the same time he wasn’t the biggest fan of actually eating the food. Kinda reminded Kai of a robot the more he thought about it, which was silly. Zane wasn’t a robot, how weird would it be if he was one?

“Are you stressed about Cole and I?” Cole blinked in surprise at both Kai’s statement and Zane’s defeated nod. Kai gave a small laugh not at all shocked, Zane was a little strange and his eating habits were no different.

“There’s nothing to worry about Zane, Kai and I will be fine.” Cole comforted, placing a hand on Zane’s knee. Zane fiddled with his fingers for a few seconds deciding to slump in shoulders in defeat taking a piece of the sandwich.

Kai let out a happy noise when his boyfriend took a bite, Cole smiling happy that he got the hybrid to eat something. Glad that his boyfriend was eating something he started digging into his own meal. Despite getting him to eat, Zane only ate about half the sandwich’s pieces.

Kai’s wings sagged a little but at least his mate had eaten something. Cole was more impassive picking up Zane’s discarded textbook and reading up on shrapnel injuries. The three hybrids sat in a comfortable silence letting the time pass, occasionally whispering something to each other with hushed laughter. For the first time since that morning they all felt truly at peace with the only thing.

A few hours passed finding the three leaning up against the wall, Zane happily in Kai’s lap with his legs on Cole as the two talked about past events that they had experienced. From outside the hollow the stars shone brightly when Zane took noticed of the time by locating the moon in the sky.

“It’s eleven o’clock. You guys need your rest.” Kai and Cole let out an unhappy whine which Zane chuckled at pulling himself out of Kai’s lap. The macaw however, wrapped his arms around his boyfriend’s waist tugging him back down. With a grunt Zane landed back in Kai’s lap, Cole laughing next to them.

“Kai, you need to let me go.” Zane said with a grin; Kai responded by happily rubbing his face against Zane’s neck. Scratching the back of Kai’s head, Zane fiddled with Kai’s hands eventually tugging the two hands apart and rolled out of his boyfriend’s lap.

Kai let an unhappy whine at the loss of Zane’s contact deciding to cuddle up to Cole instead. A bright blush appeared on Cole’s cheek as Kai wrapped his arms around his waist and laying his head on Cole’s chest. Zane scoffed jokingly placing his hands on his hips not noticing Cole’s blush.

“Are you leaving me for Cole?” He joked, Kai sticking his tongue out in response cuddling up to Cole’s chest. Cole was unsure about to react to everything; Kai seemed perfectly happy resting up against Cole and Zane seemed unfazed at his boyfriend cuddling up against another hybrid.

“Alright, but you still need your rest, both of you do.” Zane pointed out, he stared at his nest for a few minutes. It was certainly more comfortable then sleep on the floor and it should fit both Cole and Kai. He was going to have stay awake anyway, to check on their wounds and make sure they didn’t turn off or overstrain themselves by accident.

“Cole,” He addressed. “Are you alright with sleeping next to Kai? I only have one nest and I do not want you to fly just yet.” Cole made a slight choking sound gaining the others’ attention. He quickly waved it off Zane moving the pillows in the nest and Kai resting his head on the hawk’s chest again.

Share a nest with Kai?! A hybrid that he had a crush on and already had a boyfriend that he also liked?? First off, how could Zane bring up an idea like that and two why was the owl so calm about it? Everything he knew about hybrid relationships is that at the end of it, hybrids are super possessive about their mates and will bond for life.

Kai and Zane were a weird outlier in that, hybrids usually found their life-long mate in either their first or second courting partner. Yet, Zane had no possessiveness toward Kai’s actions toward Cole and even seemed to encourage it. While it wasn’t weird for hybrids to have multiple partners it was definitely rare but does that mean...no that’s crazy. Zane was only thinking in terms of their comfort with their injuries he couldn’t be inviting Cole into their relationship.

His heart hurt at the thought, he really did like the two and Jay. He’s had more daydreams about the four being together then he liked to admit especially since he’d only known Kai and Zane for like, four days. But it only proved how much the two had grown on him which wasn’t unsurprising Cole always had an easy time letting people into his life.

It dawned on him that he should probably answer Zane’s question soon instead of pondering the idea of getting into a polyamorous relationship with everyone. Zane kneeled in front of the two cradling the two slightly bloody blankets that they had been resting on earlier.

“Cole? Everything alright?” The owl inquired concerned.

“Yeah, yeah. Just thinking about Jay. Wondering how he’s doing.” Cole lied. Zane gave him a comforting smile, resting a hand on Cole’s knee.

“I am sure Jay is doing alright. I can go get him if you would like, if it made you feel better.” Cole’s heart ached at Zane’s utter kindness. While he did miss Jay and was actually wondering how he was doing, he was probably with Nya or sleeping.

“No, no it’s fine.” He settled on only to get Zane frown unhappily.

“Are you sure? It is no problem to me, I only want you to be happy.” Zane offered. Kai was now listening into the conversation, putting in his two-cents.

“C’mon I know how much you and Jay care about each other. You guys have lived together for awhile, don’t you wanna see him? Zane really doesn’t mind at all.” Cole wasn’t sure it wanted to cry or hug them both tightly. Goddamnit, why did they have to be so nice?

He nodded softly seeing Zane perk up a bit. Giving each a hand the owl pulled the two up slowly Kai still latched around Cole like a koala. Zane led the two over to the nest getting Kai to let Cole go long enough to get them settled on their stomachs with their backs to the air. Zane left the hollow saying he was going to grab Jay and they could get comfortable as long as they didn’t roll onto the backs to not irritate the cuts.

The sound of a fluttering wings echoed through the hollow until only the sound of Cole and Kai’s breath remained. Kai had already cuddled up to the biggest pillow in the nest, right wing falling out of the nest and left resting by his side. They stared at each other for a few seconds before erupting in soft laughter; blush once again appearing on Cole’s cheek.

“Cole? You wanted to see me?” Jay’s high-pitched voice entered the hollow with two pairs of feet landing in the hollow. Zane wandered over to Kai’s side scratching the back of his neck to Kai’s happiness while Jay trotted over to Cole who had pushed himself into a sitting position.

“Yeah, just wanted to see how you were doing.” He spoke quietly, a bright smile gracing Jay’s face. The blue jay kneeled by the side of the nest so that he was face to face with Cole.

“I’m alright, worried about you and Kai but I know that Zane is taking care of you guys.” Jay admitted still smiling happily. Cole warmed at Jay’s sureness at the two being okay.

“I wouldn’t worry too much, you and Kai will being flying out of here in no time!” Snickered Jay placing an comforting hand on Cole’s upper arm. Cole nodded, actually feeling a little more calm now that Jay was here; not that he didn’t mind hanging out with Kai and Zane but he really missed his closest friend at the hollow even if he only saw him a couple hours ago.

“Thanks Jay, I just needed to see you. I feel better now.” Jay absolutely beamed pulling Cole to a half hug wrapping his arms around Cole’s neck.

Cole squeaked at the sudden movement but happily returns the hug the best he could. Jay ruffled the top of Cole’s head as he pulled away pulling a happy laugh from Cole as Jay stood back up and said his goodbyes.

“I’ll see you in the morning Cole! And you guys too!” The three hybrids waved goodbye as Jay flew back to his hollow to go to sleep. Cole went back to lying down as Kai and Zane whispered something to each other before Zane kissed the top of Kai’s head goodnight.

Zane walked over to Cole’s side and double checked the bandages happy with how it was holding up. He then also kissed the top of Cole’s head and blowing out the candles in the room leaving one small one lit by the side of the nest. Luckily the darkness hid Cole’s blush as he buried his face into a white fluffy pillow.

“Don’t stay up all night Zane,” Kai warned; Zane hummed in response flipping to his lost page in the textbook. Too tired to argue with his boyfriend, Kai flopped onto a couple of his pillows facing Cole who was still having his gay crisis.

“Night Cole, night Zane.” Kai yawned closing his eyes and letting the comforting hold of sleep overtake him. Zane gave another hum as Cole responded with his own goodnight. He laid awake for a couple minutes before exhaustion pulled him into sleep.

____

Zane passed out around four in the morning, simply couldn’t keep his body awake any longer. Kai would not be happy at him not going to sleep sooner. Morning came sooner than any of them would have liked but it was Sensei who forced them to wake up at about eight in the morning.

Banging on a gong he entered to where the three were sleeping; Cole and Kai had cuddled up to each other in the night, Cole resting his chin on the top of Kai’s head each having an wing and arm wrapped around each other. Zane on the other hand was resting up against the wall in a sitting position, his wings wrapped the edges of his body.

The two in nest grumbled awake enough information for Sensei to leave them and move on. Kai moved closer to Cole, the hybrid not fully awake to realize their position. A few minutes passed as Cole wearily blinked his eyes awake looking down to see the top of Kai’s head. He closed his eyes immediately thinking that holy shit, he was cuddled up to another hybrid’s mate, he had a crush on both hybrids and Kai was so soft and fluffy and cute.

He faked sleep as Kai started moving and untangled himself from Cole’s limbs climbing out of nest. As soon as Kai left he opened his eyes to see Kai looking down unhappily at where Zane had curled up on the wall.

“Oh snowflake…” Cole sat up slowly as Kai kneeled down cradling Zane’s face in hands. Pulling himself out of the nest he held his side moving over to Kai’s side. Zane’s head had lolled into Kai’s hand, chest rise and falling at regular intervals.

“He didn’t sleep there all night, did he?” Cole asked as Kai’s fingers trailed along one side of Zane’s face. The nod he got was all Cole needed as a confirmation as Zane came to consciousness from Kai’s touches.

The heat of Kai’s hands were enticing and Zane cuddled up into it, Kai responding by latching himself next to Zane letting the owl rest of a little longer. Zane’s head rolled onto Kai’s bandaged chest but his wing extended to wrap his feathers against the edge of Cole’s foot pulling forward in a tugging movement.

At first Cole didn’t move; Zane’s wing once again pulling on Cole’s foot. Kai noticed Cole’s hesitation giving him a short chuckle.

“He wants you here too. You don’t have to be so caution, there’s nothing wrong.” Kai assured reaching out a hand in invitation. Cole hesitated but eventually gave in cautiously placing himself down on Kai’s opposite side. Zane’s wings happily rested on Cole’s legs. Instead of shying away Cole built up a little confidence and started to softly preen Zane’s feathers with a nod of approval from Kai.

Zane let out a happy mewl at the attention from the two hybrids; Kai giving his mate a chuckle while Cole nearly had a brain malfunction from the noise. Despite it, the three were content to spend the quiet morning together. Voices echoed down at the base of hollow causing Zane to whine unhappily at the noise. Kai shushed him combing his fingers through the other’s hair. Cole watched with slight remorse at how close the two were, he wanted that, he wanted them.

Jay and Nya suddenly entered the hollow with unreadiable expressions. Jay’s expression changed suddenly to shock at the three; he gave Cole a confused look who shrugged. Nya was the opposite snickering at the cuddle pile.

“Did they drag you into that?” She said with a laugh pulling Jay closer to the other three. Kai laughed while Cole shrugged again with a sheepish smile. Nya looked down at Zane’s sleeping form with slight remorse like Kai did.

“Did he fall asleep there?” Kai nodded as Nya and Jay joined the cuddle group. Jay rested up against Cole’s empty side as the two wrapped a wing around each other. Nya clung to Kai’s back shoving the bright red, yellow, and blue wings out of her face.

“Yeah, I don’t know how long he’s been sleeping though. If I to guess it’s probably less than four hours of sleep.” As if in response Zane snorted in his sleep causing the group to laugh. It didn’t last long as the newcomer Lloyd entered the hollow with Sensei.

“Is he sleeping still?” Sensei inquired kneeling in front of the group, Lloyd following immediately behind clearly uncomfortable by the group.

“Yes, we don’t know how long he’s been sleeping however. He needs the rest, probably has less than four hours of sleep.” Kai responded. Sensei nodded in understanding moving on to why he really brought all of them together.

“Lloyd and I decided to check out the remains of our old village to look for survivors. We wanted to bring all of you to help however since Cole and Kai are grounded they can’t come. Also since Zane is their caretaker, kind of…” The group snickered at that. “He needs to remain behind also in case of the finding of any survivors.”

 

 

Nya piped up, “Does that mean Jay and I need to go?”

Sensei nodded in conformation. Jay and Nya shrugged, they didn’t really want to leave but they knew how much this probably meant to the two of them.

“We should get going, we should not wait any longer then we already have.” Sensei stood up trekking over to the open hole in the wall. Lloyd followed quickly after and the two waited for the others.

“Try not to injure yourself more okay?” Jay whispered giving a Cole a goodbye side-hug. Cole chuckled promising he would.

“Look after yourself and Zane alright?” Nya mumbled squeezing her brother tightly. Kai squeaked at the pressure from Nya’s hug nodding quickly. The macaw let her brother go moving to ruffle Zane’s hair getting a snort for her effort.

The group chuckled as Nya and Jay left to join Sensei and Lloyd; Cole and Kai watched as the four flew out of the hollow toward the burning remains of where Lloyd had lived. They were unsure of what they would come back with and sat Zane in both of the arms hoping that nothing horrible was going to happen to the ones they loved. 

____

Jay and Nya flew a feet behind as Lloyd led them to the remains of his town. Nya didn’t feel comfortable leaving her only family behind especially since two were injured and the other didn’t know how to fight. She loved Zane but he was at the end of the day a healer and could not bring himself to harm anyone.

“Nya, focus.” Jay’s voice brought her back to their current reality seeing Lloyd begin to decrease. Jay flew in front of her his bright blue wings catching the sunlight illuminating them. A few minutes passed when the scent of burning wood filled her nose.

She coughed on reflex pausing in mid-air before speeding to catch with the others. The scent only got stronger and smoke was coming from the distance; Jay pulled the front of his uniform up as far as it could go to cover his nose, Nya doing the same.

“It’s a little bit further!” Lloyd called out to the three. Jay and Nya gave each other a worried glance continuing on until Lloyd dipped suddenly into a nosedive.

Sensei did the exact thing with Jay and Nya a little confused but mirrored the other’s actions. Trees rushed by as smoke and the occasional flame made themselves apparent. Within a few minutes they had landed in a clearing, smoke causing Nya’s eyes to water. Sensei passed them two pieces of cloth which they wrapped around their mouth and nose.

“We can’t stay here long because of the smoke so work fast.” Sensei spoke quickly following Lloyd’s lead. What they came upon brought pure and utter shock and horror to the four hybrids.

The skeletons of buildings laid in their burned remains, ash flowing in the wind that ran through the deceased town. Bodies of hybrids and groundwalkers laid on the ground, the scent of burned flesh filling Nya’s nose making her gag on it. Blood was everything around the buildings and even coming from some of the collapsed ones. All plant life was gone, there was nothing left except blackened ash.

“Oh my god…” Were the only words that came from the group courtesy of Jay. Lloyd hiccuped back his sobs at the sight covering his mouth with his hand. Sensei was stoic, hiding his expression once again but Nya could see the glint of tears.

“C’mon, we need to get moving.” She comforted getting nods from the other three as they split off into pairs. Nya and Jay took the south side while Lloyd and Sensei took the north and monastery. It hurt Nya to no end to see the endless carnage and destruction.

Turning a corner toward one of the large buildings she nearly collapsed into sobs upon seeing the bodies of a mother and father trying to get to their two children but were too late. Flashes of her parents and that awful day raced through her mind. That could have been them...it could have been her and Kai that Zane could had been forced to bury next to their parents. Jay was a few steps behind but nearly threw up at the various bodies next to the family.

“How could someone do this?” He whispered harshly wrapping his arms and wings around himself. Nya took a sharp inhale nearly choking on the smoke again. They couldn’t think about that yet...they needed to focus on find any survivors.

Nya physically pulled herself away from the scene Jay on her heels as she shifted through rubble. The two shouted for any survivors going from building to building. No matter where they went the scent of death followed them; the scent of flesh burning and smoke that is.

They were starting to lose hope as the time passed and they started to come to the end of south end of the route. Nya had separated from Jay to cover more ground when they had come to the end when a hand caught her attention. The hand was burned, that much was true but wasn’t crushed by any rubble. Her heart jumped into her throat as she rounded the corner and saw a heavily injured but alive body.

The man had a burned black and purple wings which took most of the damage, if he did survive he would probably be unable to fly for a long time if ever again. The man looked about Sensei’s age with his various limbs and important skin burned to a crisp.

“Jay!!” She yelled as she pushed some rubble away from the body. Jay ran over at her yell and immediately kneeled next to the body checking his pulse. The beat was weak but was there.

“He’s alive! Nya he’s alive!” They needed to alert Lloyd and Sensei immediately. Cupping her hands above her head she let out a burst of water to mark their position and let out a call for Sensei. She threw the water to the fire nearby.

Jay was ripping pieces of uniforms off to cover the most serious wounds when Lloyd and Sensei arrived. Lloyd ran by Nya and collapsed with a cry of happiness. Sensei stood still looking at the body as Nya and Jay picked up the injured man. Lloyd continued to fret and whine over the   
body even as Nya switched the hold to bridal style being as gently as she could.

It has been eight years and Wu would have never imagined seeing his brother again like this. That he up and abandoned his family and now his only brother was tipping-toeing on death’s door with his fate resting in the single healer back at the grotto. Only one thing ran through his head as tears fell down his cheeks.

“I’m sorry…”


	6. Chapter Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kai and Cole learn about what Jay and Nya found at Lloyd's old village. Jay comes to them in tears up to the two to try and calm down the distressed blue jay. 
> 
> Zane spends time with Lloyd while healing up his father. The owl introduces the parakeet to an fairytale that seems to relate to his life with Kai, but where do Cole and Jay fit in?
> 
> Low on supplies, Kai, Cole, Jay, and Zane fly off to the hybrid-friendly village known as Igancia. To Kai's surprise he runs into his old friends, Yugen, She, and Indigo. While taking with Yugen an attack is placed upon the camp. Running toward the center they find a creature called Alpha and she's the reason for this current attack but what else does she have up her nonexistent sleeve?

Cole rested against the side of the opening to the hollow as Kai was currently having his bandages replaced. Jay, Nya and everyone else had left about roughly three hours ago and Cole couldn’t deny it; but he was getting nervous. He jumped slightly at a sudden touch on his shoulder, turning his head to meet Kai’s amber-colored eyes. 

“You alright there big guy?” Kai inquired shifting his weight onto his right foot. Cole’s wings shifted being pulled closer toward his back.

“Yeah, I’m just nervous is all.” Kai smiled sweetly moving closer to the downcast hawk.

“They’re gonna be fine, I’m sure of it. I don’t know about Jay, but Nya knows what she’s doing.” Was what Kai wanted to reply before hearing a loud, panicked ‘Zane!’ come from outside. Zane wandered out of the bathroom with Cole and Kai’s cleaned crop tops in his hands, eyebrows raised.

“Did someone call my name?” Cole and Kai gave each other a look as another loud yell for Zane’s name came from outside. Rushing to the open door Zane looked down wings flared slightly. A few seconds past before Zane seaw something that caused him to immediately shoot out of the hollow toward the ground.

Both Cole and Kai were not ready for Zane’s sudden movement and nearly fell out of the opening right behind the owl. They caught themselves on the edge staring as Zane’s form was surrounded by their missing packmates. Since they were too far away they weren’t able to figure out what anyone was saying. 

Jay and Nya broke away as Zane, Lloyd, and Sensei moved away toward the biggest hollow in the center of the grove. Jay nearly crashed into Kai by accident as he flew through the hollow’s opening while Nya grabbed literally as much of Zane’s medical supplies as she could carry then rushing back out of the opening. 

Cole picked Jay off of the floor where he had landed and sat him down on the edge of Zane’s nest; all the while the blue jay was crying and speaking incoherently. Jay was forced to take a few breaths to get his nerves under control so he was able to say coherent words. Concerned deeply for his friend, Cole kneeled down and let Jay squeeze his hands a couple times while Kai rubbed the distressed blue jay’s back. They sat there together for a few moments until Jay had stopped freaking out. 

“Jay, Jay what’s wrong?” Cole tried to comfort keeping his hands in Jay’s. Jay gulped for lost breaths trying to explain what happened when he and Nya were gone.

“Jay, we can’t understand what you’re saying. Take a deep breath for me.” Jay turned toward Kai (who had spoken) trying to nod as he slowly followed Kai’s breathing. Cole watched silently as a Kai got the blue jay to relaxed state through the breathing exercise. 

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry...it’s just…” Jay gulped pulling his knees to chest and letting go of Cole’s hands. “We found a body in the wreckage... I thought it was dead and it was alive.” Kai and Cole kept quiet despite wanting to start screaming several different questions.

“It didn’t look anything like a hybrid anymore, the wings were gone and only bones were left. Oh my god, it was awful. I couldn’t stand to look at it, but the worst part was that…” Jay hiccuped on sobs. “It Lloyd’s dad…” Jay trailed off tears trailing down his cheeks; leaving only shocked silence as Kai and Cole processed the information that Jay given them.

“So you found Lloyd’s dad who was damaged beyond belief then carried him over here and are hoping Zane can heal him?” Kai said slowly, mentally going over everything that Jay had said. Jay nodded in conformation. Cole pulled himself onto the nest with a grunt settling next to Jay as no doubt the blue jay was replaying what he had just seen.

Cole didn’t know what to do, he was never good at comforting hybrids. He wanted to do something to help, to lift Jay’s spirits and distracted him but what? Glancing toward Kai he could see the mental gears turning his head as Jay sobbed between the two. Kai seemed to know how to comfort Zane from what he knew maybe he could do something to make Jay okay again. 

Cole gave Kai an distressed look as Jay let out another pitiful cry. Sending a comforting glance to Cole, Kai pulled the blue jay into his lap and started to tickle the blue jay’s sides. Jay squaked indignantly as Kai’s fingers ran over his sides.

His tears started lessen as a weak smile grew on the other’s face. Kai continued his ministrations until Jay’s face was dry from tears and he was erupting into laughter. An smile graced Kai’s face as Jay squirmed in his lap, wracked with giggles as he continued to tickle the smaller hybrid. Cole smiled at Jay’s happier attitude reaching over to join in, tickling the back of Jay’s neck. 

Jay tried to push the two larger hybrids back to no avail still drowning in his own laughter. Flapping his wings twice he grabbed at Cole’s hand and pulled the hawk toward him. In revenge, Jay immediately went to Cole’s sides in revenge. Cole squaked indigently as Jay attacked his own sides, the only part of his body that he was ticklish in. Kai raised an eyebrow at the sudden change but followed Jay’s lead and started doing tickling the much larger Cole.

“How...haha stop it!! How did it change to me?!” Cole howled as Jay and Kai switched their entire attention over to Cole. Jay climbed off of Kai’s lap in favor of Cole’s and attacked his sides ruthlessly. Kai laughed at the two’s antics, completely enamored. An soft frown graced Kai’s features as he stared at the opening, he wanted Zane to be with them. 

An loud thud drew Kai’s attention from his brooding to see Cole on his back with a surprised Jay on top. The hawk had fallen back into the nest with a surprised yelp after Jay had run a hand over his stomach. 

“Cole? Are you okay?” Cole blinked indignantly seeing Jay lift his weight off his chest. Moving to be eye to eye with the hawk; Jay’s auburn curls fell over his scarred eyebrow, two bright blue eyes peering down at Cole. Cole made a noise squirming around as Kai had mercy picking Jay up off him by his sides.

“Yeah, yeah just didn’t expect to fall over like that,” Cole laughed pushing himself up from where he had fallen down. Jay hummed happily even though Kai was basically holding him like a dog, while Kai raised a eyebrow, a smirk gracing the macaw’s face. Jay kicked his legs lightly so Kai knew he could put him back down, which the macaw did.

Kai threw an arm over Jay’s shoulder, the blue jay startling a little at the sudden movement. “You feel better now lightning bolt?” 

Cole watched amused as Jay’s face reddened considerable to the nickname, the latter stuttering an ‘yes’ in response. Nodding happily Kai moved away from his friend stretching out his limbs and wings treading over to the hole in the tree. Resting his body against the edge he stared at Sensei’s hollow. The mattress dipped as Jay moved over to Cole’s side blinking over toward Kai’s form leaning against the wall.

Kai’s wings flexed pulling the bandages taunt against his back muscles. Both Jay and Cole had to admit Kai was a good looking hybrid who just happened to be dating another good looking hybrid. In Jay’s mind they were the ultimate power couple who could probably get anything they wanted if they just smiled. I mean, they had Jay pretty much wrapped around their fingers. In Cole’s mind, it mostly just daydreams of the four of them together. So, he just wanted him and Jay to be included with the two.

The hours passed by slowly with Kai keeping post near the opening. The three spent their time together joking and making fun of Jay’s height. Around the fifth hour Nya flew in to Kai’s happiness, he missed his sister. 

Joining the group she explained the current state of the situation along with bringing a card game. From what Kai, Cole, and Jay could understand Garmadon was suffering from extreme burns and Zane and Lloyd needed to spend the night watching over the old phoenix. Sensei Wu required time alone and with them setting up in his hollow, he was borrowing what would become Lloyd’s hollow for the night. 

“So is Garmadon going to be fine then?” Jay inquired when the four hybrids joined each other in a circle with the cards set out in front of them. 

“Yeah, Zane just needs to keep his focus on Garmadon’s wounds but he has a high chance of survival.” Jay, Cole, and Kai let out a sigh of relief, the last thing they wanted was the death of another hybrid especially with only a few tribes remaining alive. 

They didn’t know Lloyd very well, but they knew Sensei and this would tear him apart. This was especially true after not seeing or speaking to his brother for over eight years. However Kai still seemed to be stressed after Nya mentioned that Sensei would not allow them to see Zane or Lloyd for any reason. 

Cole mused that Kai was more stressed about Zane’s health than anything else, knowing that he wouldn’t eat or sleep if there was a hybrid that needed to be taken care of. After all it took both of them to get Zane to eat half a sandwich and sleep for less than six hours, and their injuries were relatively minor compared to Garmadon’s. Jay snapped his fingers in front of Cole’s face to attract his attention back to reality. 

“Earth to Cole!” Jay had moved to be in front of spaced out friend and waving his hands in front of Cole’s face. Pushing Jay’s hand away with short smile, Cole dealt out the cards to each player. As time continued to passed Cole and that others played round after round and switching from game to game. But it was starting to become apparent that Kai was getting more and more stressed. No matter what the three tried to say to comfort him they all knew that it was to no avail.

____

Cold water rushed over Zane’s red-stained hands; causing the water to turn a light pink and blood to stain Sensei’s pristine white sink. Outside of the room Lloyd was curled up next to his father, bandages covering the hybrid from head to toe. Seeing hybrids in pain never got any easier even with Zane’s required job as a healer. First Kai and Cole and now Garmadon? 

Zane sighed running a wet hand through his hair turning to the new uniform that Sensei had laid out for him knowing that his current one would be soiled by the blood. There wasn’t too much blood but it was still unsanitary so the new uniform was in order.

Pulling the edges of shirt from under his belt, he tucked his wings into the holes located in the back and pulled the shirt over his head. Holding the soiled shirt in his hands he folded the now light pink fabric placing it in the shower. He had taken off his boots awhile ago so he just took off his pants and pulled the soft kimono on over his body. Finding the holes in the back he pushed his wings through and then exited the bathroom. 

Lloyd looked up suddenly at sudden noise as Zane re-entered the room. He gave a sad smile to Lloyd before kneeling before Garmadon to recheck the bandages. Zane felt a hand wrap around his arm glancing back to see Lloyd watching everything he did intently. The young hybrid was scared since that much was obvious, Zane used to be in the same position; and he swore that he would keep Garmadon alive for the youngling.

“Is Dad going to be alright?” Lloyd’s weak voice broke the previous silence as Zane retied a bandage covering Garmadon’s right arm. Pale fingers paused from where they were re-taping, Lloyd glanced at Zane from the corner of his eyes seeing a tear roll down the stoic owl’s face.

“Zane?” Whispered the parakeet. Zane blinked back to reality quickly wiping the tear away and finishing the bandage. 

“Yes, uh... he will be fine.” Standing up, the robe flowed around Zane’s legs, not quite reaching the ground due to the owl’s impressive height. Lloyd frowned, something obviously bothering the other but decided not to press. Lloyd followed Zane’s figure as the owl started cleaning up the medical supplies that he had used. Garmadon’s chest rose and fell slowly; he was alive but barely. Who knows what would have happened had Jay and Nya not found Garmadon when they did?

 

Shivers wracked Lloyd’s body as he wrapped his arms around himself. No; he shouldn’t think like that. But at the same time, he was still eight after all - even if he was in a sixteen year old body. Something nudged his shoulder causing his head to snap toward the movement. Zane had finished cleaning without Lloyd even realizing.

Extending a hand Lloyd took a few moments before letting Zane pull him up off the floor and onto Sensei’s nest. Lloyd stared at his lap as Zane rustled around for a few minutes before eventually settling next to Lloyd. In his hands was an old fairytale book, the cover old and used with stain silver lettering. It was a book about fairy-tales that hybrids used to tell to their hatchlings when they were young and this book in particular was especially well-loved.

“Here,” Zane handed Lloyd the book who took it tentatively. “When I went through any rough times I would read this to feel better.” 

To Lloyd, he couldn’t understand why a book of fairytales would make someone feel better, but maybe it would at the least distract him. The two hybrids curled up near each other at the back of the nest, Zane writing something down in a journal while Lloyd flipped through the book.

Lloyd’s first observation of the owl was how unnatural cold the other was. It wasn’t too cold to be uncomfortable but it was too unnatural to be hybrid. The second was how Zane was easy at hiding his emotions; Zane was almost completely straight faced during the entire operation of healing his father. The third was that Zane seemed to have gone through a similar event to this and was hiding the trama from it for Lloyd’s sake. 

Shaking off his thoughts about the mysterious hybrid, Lloyd decided to actually read one of the fairytales. He eventually settled on one he didn’t know.

It was about a pair of hybrid princes who needed to overcome various challenges including a corrupt king and an army of evil. The first prince was a ordinary red robin with the powers of the sun being the more headstrong of the two. The second prince was a dove who was born a commoner and married into royalty by accident; he had the powers of the moon. 

According to the story they lived relatively peacefully in their small kingdom when they were attacked by an army of brainwashed minions. The two were seperated with the dove being taken by the corrupt king who lead the army and the robin left injured and to the wrath of a raven and blue heron. Using a special healing spell that the dove had taught to him, he was able to break the king’s control over the raven and heron becoming friends with the two.

The raven and blue heron remembered everything that they had to deal with under the evil king, and remembered where the king’s base was. So the three set off to rescue the kidnapped dove and faced the monsters of the king. The journey took over two weeks and the three fell in love with each other but the robin’s love for the dove never faded.

During the night the robin would regale the other two with stories about the dove which only resulted in causing the robin’s heart break to increase; he just wanted his mate back. Eventually they reached the castle where their first priority was to find the missing prince. They split up with the raven going to the dungeons and the robin and heron to the first and second floor.

It was the raven who found the dove chained up and abandoned in one of the cells. Carefully the raven picked up the battered dove and raced to find the other two only to run into guards. The raven panicked, he cared for the dove more than he thought from the robin’s stories and the need and love to protect the heron and robin unlocked something he never knew he had.

The raven gained the power of the planets and defeated the enemies that stood his path. On the other side were the robin and heron. The robin nearly broke down into sobs over the broken body of his mate, whispering pleas for the dove to come back to him. 

From his side, the raven and heron were saddened by the display, the love that the two had shared was apparent and they only wanted to fix what they had a hand in doing. The heron came from the robin’s opposite side placing a hand on the dove’s body. 

Pure love raditated between the three toward each other and the dove, the connection that they all had from their journey, previous lives, and stories fueling them. An bright light radiated between the three earning shocked gasps from them all until they were blinded. 

As quickly as it came the light faded away finding the four on the ground each in the purest form of their powers. The robin woke up first followed by the heron and the raven. Once awaken they raced toward the dove who was healed of their injuries and blinking blearily up at the three.

The robin nearly cried in relief hugging the dove tightly against him as the raven and heron hugged behind them. What surprised the three was that the dove had been using his magic to watch over the three shared the same love for the raven and the heron that he had for the robin. Embracing they promised that after they defeated the king that they would rule the land together. 

They fought up to the throne room where they found the king yelling at what was left of his army. The king and the four hybrids engaged into a fight destroyed anything that they touched. They overestimated what they could do and were almost defeated by the king, it was the heron that eventually came up with the plan to defeat the king. Using the powers on each other they were able to fuse together into the hybrid god known as “Creation”.

With their new abilities and powers they were able to save the brainwashed army and defeat the evil king and destroy whatever he done. Using the power of creation they were able to heal the land and bring back those that were lost in the war that the king had waged on.

The tale ended with the hybrids staying together as Creation as their purest form and promised to look over hybrids and put a stop to any evil that threatened hybrids or their land. Lloyd closed the book to find that twilight had fallen over the hollows.

 

How long had he been reading? It couldn’t have been that long but the sky said otherwise. From the ground Zane was tending to a burn that had started bleeding again, food was placed on the nest-side table with Lloyd’s name on it. 

“That’s yours,” Lloyd blinked as Zane pointed to the food from where he was sitting. 

“Oh, uh, thank you.” Mumbling his response he gingerly placed down Zane’s fairytale book and grabbed the food from the table bringing it into the nest. Keeping one eye on the book he ate the food until the nest dipped beside him.

“I see you liked the book.” Zane smiled softly at the young boy who nodded shyly. Zane picked up the discarded book flipped through it’s worn pages finding the story that Lloyd had been reading, “The God of Creation”. He always liked that one the best, he used to consider him and Kai as the dove and robin in search of their raven and heron. 

Now here with Cole and Jay, well he’s certain that they’ve found their raven and heron. But that brings up a concern, with the recent attacks what if there’s their own version of an evil king out that? No that was crazy, after all this was just a fairytale not reality. Lloyd poked Zane’s arm after noticing the owl started to drift.

“You alright there?” Lloyd questioned as Zane shook his head. Smiling Zane replied that he was fine climbing out of the nest and let Lloyd finish eating. Walking to the bathroom Zane closed the door and collapsed against it, the book held closely against his chest. Truthfully he’s had the book longer then he would like to admit, and apart from the necklace it was the last remaining piece of his family.

Tears threatened to spill down his cheeks and he tried to hold them back like he had down during the entire operation on Garmadon. It reminded him of his failure to keep his own family alive. Seeing them dead in the snow and he could do nothing but hide. He had been useless, pathetic, a horrible excuse for a healer. It was his job to keep other hybrids safe and he failed.

Not only did he fail but he failed in the most spectacular fashion possibly, by letting his dads and brother die while he hid like a coward instead. Zane whimpered pulling his knees closer to his chest, not even Kai and Nya knew of his failure. At the thought of his mate’s name he only wanted to be in the other’s arms not on the floor of a bathroom. God he must look pathetic surrounded by an old book and his stained bloody uniform in the shower. 

The necklace pulsed softly around his neck as he fought to keep his tears at bay, almost comforting. He needed to calm down; this wasn’t helping Lloyd or Garmadon he needed to man up. Clenching his fists he took deep breaths and shook his head. More calm then he was before he picked himself off the floor, book still clutched tightly. 

“Alright you got this…” He whispered to himself staring at his face through the mirror. Two determined eyes stared back at him as if saying, yes, you got this. Steeling himself, he gripped his necklace tightly and left the room. 

Lloyd looked up from his place on the nest seeing Zane come out of the bathroom. The parakeet narrowed his eyes in concern, something was off. But, he couldn’t put his finger on it. Zane sent a small smile his direction before settling down on the edge of the opening to the hollow. 

Lloyd rubbed his eyes cuddling into one of the pillows near the edge of the nest watching the owl flipped through the fairytale book. His father’s breathing was soon the only sound, slightly labored but he sounded alive. Lloyd’s heart pounded since it meant hope, that his father was going to survive. 

Drowsiness fell over the young hybrid, he wasn’t able to sleep much the previous night too concerned with the events that brought him here. The hatchling’s body sank into the mattress, wings splayed out on both sides. Fighting to keep his eyes open, to just stay that little bit awake. 

Of course he was still concerned over his father and wanted to stay awake to help Zane just in case. He slipped off by accident startled awake by a hand on his shoulder.

“No, it’s alright Lloyd. You need the sleep. I was checking in on you.” Lloyd mumbled as Zane’s hand left his shoulder, no longer trying to fight sleep. Surrounded by his father’s soft breathing and Zane flipped the pages of the book he drifted into sleep. 

____

Garmadon woke up on sixth day surprised to see Zane’s face staring back at him. The old phoenix was very confused especially when Sensei Wu and Lloyd flew in. Zane left for the first time to let the family reconnected and slammed into Kai once spotting him in the yard. The macaw became the happiest that he had been in days spinning the owl around in his arms. 

“Zane! You’re alive!” The macaw laughed, Zane snuggling into Kai’s neck once he had been put down back on the ground. Kai crooned at his mate absolutely ecstatic to have him back in his arms again. Cole, Jay and Nya stuck their heads at the commotion the two caused, Cole and Jay each jumping to see their friend again. Nya shook her head with a smile but joined the four on the ground.

“I missed you snowflake.” Kai mumbled, low enough for just Zane to hear as the other three quickly caught up the owl on the past few days. 

“I missed you too.” Zane turned his head and placed a soft kiss on the edge of Kai’s lips as they all fell into an comfortable talk, surrounding each other in a circle on the ground. 

Lloyd flew out of the hollow a few minutes later with a request from Sensei a little while later. Supplies were running low, which was understandable with both Zane healing nearly half the pack and the other half were hybrids that were training in their respective classes.

Zane was allowed to leave after being cooped up in one place for six days, Jay was being sent to look for each of the supplies and Kai and Cole were sent to stretch their wings out and protect the other two. Nya was also supposed to go but she wanted to practice her weapons training with Lloyd making a joke that the kid needed to beef up a little. 

Lloyd squaked unintelligibly while the other four snickered. Lloyd with a grumble handed Jay the list and Zane the bag to carry the supplies. While Cole and Kai were still bandaged around their backs, Zane deemed them all right to fly as long as they didn’t do anything to strenuous. 

An few miles to the south was a hybrid-friendly town, a hard thing to find in this day in age. The town was made up of groundwalkers that had been cast out due to supporting hybrids. The population was small but they had an booming economy due to hybrids that lived, worked, and brought from there while the groundwalkers lived, worked, and protected their feathery friends from those that came for them. 

Kai and Nya even knew two of the hybrids that lived there, a roadrunner named Sha and a groundwalker turned hybrid named Yugen. The two were half of the founders of the town named Ignacia. Before they had lived with Zane, they used to live Ignacia due to it being a hybrid-friendly town.

Biding their goodbyes the four flew toward Ignacia. Jay went first, followed by Zane with Cole and Kai leading up the rear. The flight was relatively quiet with occasional question from Zane about their needed supplies and Jay’s replies. Kai’s mind started to wander, he hadn’t been in Ignacia in years. He wondered if his parents’ old blacksmith shop was still standing. 

He remembered some from his time in the town, he would challenge his friend Sha to races while Yugen taught Nya basic fighting movements. His parents would make specialty weapons while Kai looked on in awe of their powers. He used to be so excited to get his powers and explore the world with his sister. God he used to be innocent and then he met Zane for the first time.

Kai never regretted meeting Zane but he wished he had meet the owl under less severe circumstances. Cole’s wing hit him the face almost falling out of the sky. 

“Cole! What the hell?” Cole shushed him in response watching as Zane and Jay hovered in midair. Zane seemed to be looking for something while Jay gave Cole and Kai an concerned look. Suddenly a grappling hook wrapped around Zane’s ankle and pulled him down to the ground with a surprised yell. 

White feathers disappeared into the foliage with Kai immediately diving down after his boyfriend. Cole and Jay hovered for a few seconds shocked before dropping down to find their two missing packmates. On the ground they found Zane caught in a net sighing loudly while Kai was being restrained by two hybrids and a groundwalker. 

Kai snarled at the hybrids holding him while Zane just seemed annoyed. The groundwalker turned to Cole and Jay holding up a spear in their direction. Cole growled at the groundwalker while Jay went into a defensive position. 

“Do you work for her?” The female hybrid asked looking at Jay. 

“Who?” Jay asked as Kai suddenly went stiff in shock. The macaw’s head nearly snapping from now fast he turned to look at the female hybrid. 

“Yugen?!” The female hybrid blinked in shock down at the macaw dropping him almost like she’d been burned. The male hybrid also seemed to be shaken while the groundwalker lowered her spear. Pulling her face mask away and hoodie away, purple hair fell from its place as tears welled up in the corner of her eyes.

“Kai? Is it really you? After all these years?” Kai jumped into the raven’s arms at the sound of his name. Yugen hugged the macaw tightly spinning him around in place while the other hybrid and groundwalker removed their masks. 

Kai grinned so widely Cole was worried that he was going to strain a muscle. The male hybrid was a roadrunner with dusty blond hair and crown wrapped around his head. The groundwalker was a short female with bright turquoise hair with a strand of purple.

“Sha! Indigo!” Sha grabbed the macaw in a hug while Indigo worked on getting Zane down for his net. 

“Kai, hey I haven’t seen you in forever!” Sha exclaimed once releasing the macaw who seemed to be practically vibrating in his spot. A loud crash grabbed their attention as Zane had landed on the ground scratching at the net. Indigo grabbed a knife from her side and cut the owl out of the net. 

Kai went over to his mate and helped the distressed owl out. Zane once released stuck close to his boyfriend as Cole and Jay started to ask thousands of questions with Zane occasionally asking one also. Yugen shushed the group placing her mask back on with Sha and Indigo following suit. 

“We’ll tell you everything, but it’s not safe out here. Come with me.” Yugen turned on his heel and flew away, looking similar to a blur. Indigo ran after the raven with Sha, a little slower but not by much let the four follow. 

“Kai, who are they?” Zane’s quiet voice popped up as they chased after the hybrids and groundwalker. Kai looked at his mate with his smile still bright on my face.

“They’re from Ignacia. They were my old friends and where I used to live.” Cole, Jay, and Zane all let an understanding ‘ohhh’. No wonder Kai knew who they were but was so surprised and happy to see them again. Cole looked toward Zane who had a small frown on his face when Kai’s face turned away. 

The group eventually arrived in a small-ish camp to Kai’s surprise. An pair of groundwalkers walked up to Yugen and Sha once they arrived while Indigo slinked away to join another groundwalker with long red hair. Sha waved to Kai and went to help the other groundwalkers. 

Yugen waved the four over and let them into a makeshift hut. The inside of the hut was covered in various jewels, potions, and cushions. The raven led them over to a chabudai sitting at the head of the table. Kai and Zane sat on the right side while Cole and Jay sat on the left side. 

“So for starters, my name is Yugen Shirogane and I was on of the founders of Ignacia. I knew Kai from when he was born until he disappeared at ten.” Zane shrunk in on himself a little at the mention of that. 

“You guys ran the hybrid friendly village right?” Jay asked fiddling with the edges of the list. Yugen nodded in confirmation.

“Yes, I used to be a human or groundwalker to hybrids,” Everyone but Kai blinked in shock. A groundwalker becoming a hybrid? “Yes, yes very strange. But I loved hybrids even when I was human and when I became a hybrid I wanted to create a place that was safe for all hybrids and hybrid supporters. So I came together with my friend Sha, a groundwalker named Cora, and the groundwalker you met Indigo.”

“Yugen, what happened to Ignacia?” Kai asked, eyebrows knitted together in concern. Even Jay and Cole were curious, they had been to Ignacia before with their families to get supplies and this camp, this wasn’t it.

“We were attacked by something, they destroyed the village…” Zane grabbed Kai’s hand immediately. The macaw shook his head in denial. “I’m sorry.” 

“No, no it’s...it’s alright I couldn’t have been so lucky to get my old village back to.” Yugen frowned as Zane rubbed Kai’s shoulder. Kai gave a weak smile to the raven, “It doesn’t matter now. We came here for another reason.” 

Yugen nodded in understanding as Jay sheepishly handed her the list. She gave the blue jay a smile who blushed and hid his face in Cole’s shoulder. A few seconds ticked by as Yugen read over the list. She nodded handing the list back and standing up. 

“We have everything you guys need. Come with me-” An loud explosion rocked the ground. Yugen whipped her head around as the sounds of yells and screams from the people of her camp. Zane and Jay gave a groan of annoyance. How many times was this going to happen?!

Yugen raced out of the tent with little fanfare as the four followed. Fire was covering the farthest edge of the camp with fighter hybrids and armored groundwalkers raced to fight the oncoming fire. Yugen had met up with Sha directing the rest of the camp away, she looked up to Kai with sad eyes. 

More fire exploded closer to the group, Yugen said something to Sha who yelled for her as she turned on her heel and grabbed a spear running toward the source.

“We have to go help her!” Kai yelled over the chaos as the heat from the flames started to scorch their skin. Cole nodded in agreement and with confirmation from Zane and Jay they raced to the center of the fight.

Hybrids and groundwalkers were fighting in the middle of the fire against beings that seemed to be made of shadows itself. A loud soul crushing laugh echoed through chaos followed by the screeches of the dark beings. Kai kicked one away that got to close; Jay and Zane stuck together occasionally using their powers if needed. Cole called on his power of earth, anklet glowing a bright orange and slammed one foot on the ground creating a powerful earthquake that nearly knocked over all those fighting. 

Kai furrowed his brow in confusion, what the hell were these things?! He snarled, fire whipping around his hands as he grabbed on of the things by throats scorching them to hell. The thing fell to the ground with a garbled scream. Turning to look back at his companions Kai saw Cole holding his own while Jay and Zane were helping those that had fallen. 

A loud scream drew his attention as something stepped through the fire. Kai stood in his place in shock at the creature that smiled in his direction. From his right Cole had flared his wings keeping one hand in front of Jay who was standing in horror. Kai looked down briefly felling Zane grip his arm in terror. 

Fire by this point had completely engulfed the camp with the hybrids, groundwalkers, and the shadow monsters all looking toward the monster in the fire. The thing had dark grey skin with white markings with two horns in buried in a nest of white hair. They were covered in red and gold jewelry looking toward those staring back at them.

Kai growled in the thing’s direction was two pure black eyes with red irises turned toward him. The thing laughed at the group of hybrids stalking toward them. Zane buried himself closer to Kai as the macaw used his wing to wrap protectively around the owl.

“What the hell are you?” Kai yelled over the fire with Zane whispering ‘oh my god’ as the creature was a few feet away from them. 

The thing laughed, dark magic swirling around their outstretched hand with the dark creatures letting out screams and yells in response. 

“I’m the Alpha bitch.” Magic formed into a large powerball in the thing’s hand and with a smirk on the thing’s face she through the powerball toward the group. Cole and Kai let out a shout with a whimper from Zane and Jay as the magic hit them and everything went completely dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To find more information, updates, and fanart for the fic go to my Tumblr @RavenRoyal21. Link to Tumblr -https://ravenroyal21.tumblr.com/ || Patreon link -https://www.patreon.com/join/RavenRoyal21?
> 
> OCs in Chapter belong to these awesome people! -
> 
> Yugen Shirogane - @RavenRoyal21  
> The Alpha - @RavenRoyal21  
> Sha - @nightlybirdie - https://nightlybirdie.tumblr.com/  
> Indigo - @strawberryhipster - https://strawberryhipster.tumblr.com  
> Cora - @evelinaonline - https://evelinaonline.tumblr.com  
> Riko - @kara-is-so-ninja - https://kara-is-so-ninja.tumblr.com/


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